A few notes on anarchist revolutionary solidarity and the struggle against prison

I’m writing these lines concerning the subjects of Solidarity and prison. I hope this can clarify the anarchist perspective as concerns revolutionary solidarity and the difference between solidarity and support, which is anyway necessary. These opinions of mine are open to discussion.

When we talk about solidarity, as insurrectionist anarchists we refer explicitly to actions, which besides giving solidarity to our comrades, attack the interests of the State/Capital and break some values of the system such as compassion and duty. These values lead to analysis and practices that have little to do with solidarity with imprisoned comrades. Solidarity actions, on the contrary, are part of the struggle.

This revolutionary solidarity on which we pose our emphasis is the action claiming the war that our imprisoned comrades are waging on the prison system, and it is aimed to destabilizing the interests of the State/Capital, the main responsible for the existence of prisons. 

We know very well that in most cases ‘necessary support’ is very important, and it translates into benefit events, letters to comrades in prison, legal aid, spreading of the words of such comrades and information about their particular cases. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not possible to reduce all solidarity to these matters of support, and at the same time it’s not possible to set up this necessary support on sentimentalism. In this way it’d be confused with the values instilled by the system, just like compassion and even blame. We have to mark our difference with NGOs and other leftist groups that don’t challenge the prison system or the existence of the concept of prison in everyday life. Moreover, our groups of necessary support to prisoners must start form a logic of destruction of prisons and oppose this logic to that of the NGOs, which don’t want to put an end to prisons, on the contrary they only strengthen the status quo with their reformist practices and values, even if they want to make prisons more democratic and less ‘brutal’.

I say this because most ONGs and leftist groups, hypothetically anti-prison, need and defend the existence of the State/Capital, or rather so called ‘prisons of the people’. Many groups of this sort don’t struggle for the destruction of these extermination centres – and in many cases they don’t even take this point into consideration, but they struggle for their reform, which includes the justice of the system. We anarchists must start form a radically different point of view. 

Things are being done because they need to be done, for a question of mutual support between affinity individuals, which is the base of anarchist free association. For inside the struggle against the absolute truth that is the existence of the State/Capital[i] it is necessary to attack its derivates, such as prisons at the base of its very functioning. Solidarity actions cannot be done on the basis of a sense of guilt or a sense of responsibility.

But this revolutionary struggle that is carried out in the form of attack and which I want to define in these lines must be without any mediation or dialogue with the oppressors. It must be a given that our dagger aims not at reform or abolition but at the destruction of prison as institution, concept and even social relation. Even when we talk about destroying prison as concept and relation we must widen our perspective and rather talk about destruction of prison, whatever prison that denies freedom to individuals and animals. I mean that reclusion and deprivation of freedom come also from mental asylums and circuses, and of course form cities, those huge prisons that deprive the natural flux of life. The whole civilization is a huge prison that deserves being destroyed.   

Solidarity that manifests itself in the form of action of attack against the powerful and their institutions is the sole active part of the struggle, as local scenarios and anarchist groups of action have demonstrated – in spite of the blows received, in many cases in a direct and bluntly way. Repressive apparatuses are not succeeding in their intent, which is to stop revolt by both stirring fear and diverting our complete attention exclusively to the liberation of our imprisoned comrades, thus making this struggle be viewed as isolated from a more general context. We have demonstrated that revolutionary solidarity towards our prisoners on war consists in the very struggle, in the daily attack on the structures of power. In spite of the blows they can deliver on us, they can’t – and they never did – stop the anarchist action for the total destruction of the system of dominion.  

For the total destruction of prisons!

For the freedom of our comrades war prisoners!

For the abolition of private property!

For uncontrollable and constant attack against the State/Capital!

Long live the anarchist international coordination!

Long live the FAI!

El anarquista Giuseppe

---

[i] Here I’d like to point out that absolute truth exists, and from this I think unique truths originate and each person experiences them according to his/her conditions. As a matter of fact ‘poverty’ exists as environmental destruction caused by the existence of the State/Capital, or rather by the Techno-system. So I assume – even if I might contradict myself – that it is necessary to repudiate the values conforming with mass society, which is itself responsible for the good functioning of the coercive machinery.  

Translated by B.pd for act for freedom now!

Athens -SOLIDARITY INTERVENTION FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION C.C.F.

On Saturday night (18/2), more than 60 comrades carried out a solidarity
intervention for the imprisoned members of the Revolutionary Organization
Conspiracy Cells of Fire in 3 neighbourhoods of Athens.

 Starting from
Merkouri square in Petralona we came to Thisio and from there to
Monastiraki.

 Pamphlets were shared out to the people passing by, the
parked cars but also in the shops of the areas while at the same time
during the course more than 30 thousand flyers were thrown and 2500 texts
were shared out. Chants were also shouted, one of them being:

THE STATE IS THE ONLY TERRORIST
SOLIDARITY TO THE ARMED GUERRILLAS

Athens-Breaking the silence surrounding the case of the anarchist Revolutionary Organization Conspiracy Cells of Fire

February 9, 2012  

Starting with September 2009 and the arrests in Halandri, now 9 members of
the R.O. CCF are locked up in prisons around Greece while other comrades
are dragged by the anti-terrorist force and the judges, from dungeon to
dungeon convicted or detained for the same case.
The attitude of the 9 members of the R.O. CCF from the first moment of
their arrest, their claim of political responsibility, their decent
attitude inside the prisons and their attempt to leave empty cells behind
them feeds our need to stand in solidarity with our imprisoned comrades
more than ever.

The “fast track” court martial taking place in the female prisons of
Koridallos, all that will come and the pilot scheme moves that are trying
to be applied for the first time on them (prosecution for the solidarity
text written by the R.O. CCF and anarchist Theofilos Mavropoulos for the
anarchist ‘steki’ Nadir) will find us next to our comrades and against any
authority.

In such a climate, we cannot remain apathetic, and abandon our comrades at
the mercy of state objectives and practises. We unite our intention,
proceeding to the development of actions of solidarity to the persecuted
comrades, not leaving out of the fire line the authoritarian impose and
stressing with every opportunity the necessity for the increase of
polymorphic refusals against the authoritarian system.
We deny the role of the victim and of course that of the “defeated from
the start” because of the oppression unleashed by the state on the
anarchist movement the last two years. The presence of the
anti-authoritarian movement must become more obvious than ever.

Demonstrations, flyposting, chants on the streets, clashes, occupations,
and attacks comprise its polymorphy. Solidarity towards the imprisoned
comrades who are persecuted for their subversive action or for their
political identity was and is one of our priorities. Because… whoever
forgets the hostages of the war, forgets the war itself. We factually show
our solidarity denying the logics of selective solidarity and divisions.
We unite our forces creating a powerful dyke to the generalized state
oppression. And there is no better way available for the step over than to
act, to show with our moves that we realize the matter of solidarity.
We took therefore the initiative to call an open discussion for the
creation of an Assembly for Solidarity to the R.O. CCF, as well as all the
comrades who are persecuted for the same case. Through this we would like
to send a signal of solidarity to all comrades who are in the target of
the oppression, but also to the organization itself. We desire the better
coordination and the intensification of the action with which we aspire to
promote our solidarity for the case we are dealing with.

We address, therefore, within these frames, a public call to whoever
comrades desires to coordinate themselves with other comrades in the case
of solidarity for the specific matter. Our aim is the active participation
in the open procedures of the assembly, contributing in its support and in
the further broadening of its dynamic. In the hard times we are going
through we owe it to ourselves and our comrades to be as sufficient as
possible and sharp against authority and its civilization. We are sure
that every move of solidarity strengthens the resistances and the
revolutionary conscience both ways, sending the message to the people
guards and the juridical mafia, that the imprisoned comrades are not
alone. The shouts they yell with courage and insistence, the passion for
refusal of authority, are a united voice that upsets the rhythm of
normality and subjugation. And will never stop being heard as long as this
civilization and all things comprising of it, exists…
CALL – DISCUSSION
FRIDAY 10/2
19.00, POLYTECHNIC


Actforfreedomnow/boubourAs

Athens-Information from the solidarity gathering for the comrades of the R.O. C.C.F.

February 2, 2012

Information from the solidarity gathering for the comrades of the C.C.F.

On Friday 27/1   A solidarity gathering with a PA system took place at the
Athens Law school in solidarity to the imprisoned comrades of the
Conspiracy Cells of Fire. The gathering lasted from 11am to 13.30pm where
many leaflets were given out from the Law school up until Propilea and to
the passing buses. More than 80 comrades gathered for this action.

POSTER SOLIDARITY CALL :

In Solidarity

Responsibility claim for molotov attack on riot cops. Exarxia, Athens 13/12/11

In the early hours of Tuesday 13/12 we attacked with molotov the riot cop unit on Bouboulinas street as well as the one next to the park on Navarinou street!!! For every comrade who is hostage of the state, every cop will feel our fire. 

FREEDOM TO THE CELLS OF FIRE

FREEDOM TO ALL IMPRISONED COMRADES

UNKOWN ANARCHISTS

Incendiary/explosive attack on police car in Buenos Aires

Posted on February 11, 2012 by This Is Our Job

 

From Viva la Anarquía! (February 11, 2012):

Internationalism is an act of our subversive hearts.
Continuing within our own context of struggle and “experiences,” we unite with our comrades from the FIRE CELLS CONSPIRACY REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION. Their words are so very close to us, like their actions.
We don’t need great reasons to set fire to opulence, social control, repression, and the treasures of the powerful.
We don’t need great reasons to blow up their valuable items and murderous institutions.
In the early morning of Sunday, February 5, we planted an incendiary/explosive device (consisting of two camping gas canisters and four bottles of naphtha) on one of the new PFA* patrol cars equipped with surveillance cameras. Nearly half the vehicle was burnt up, and all its windows were blown out.
Long live the brothers and sisters of the Fire Cells Conspiracy Organization!
We’re getting closer.
—FURY CELL (FAI)
*Argentine Federal Police

Statement by imprisoned Fire Cells Conspiracy members in solidarity with Marco Camenisch and Zerman Elias

Posted on February 11, 2012 by This Is Our Job

 

On our part, we are responding to the call by the Street-Fighting Political Prisoner Group (Gonzalo Zapata, Cristobal Franke, Zerman Elias) for international solidarity with Zerman Elias, who was arrested by three undercovers in Chile on September 22 after throwing a Molotov at a police water cannon vehicle during a student march.
Power insulted Zerman with deeply racist comments in order to send the message that, in a climate of total xenophobia, immigrants have to keep quiet. Otherwise, they will be imprisoned and extradited.
Additionally, when the police interrogated him and asked for his collaboration, our comrade refused to even tell them his own name.
We also want to send a solidarity smoke signal to eco-anarchist Marco Camenisch, who is locked up in Lenzburg prison. Marco has been behind bars for 20 years as a result of of his eco-anarchist actions and general activities. On February 8, a prefabricated hearing is scheduled to take place regarding his conditional release, but it’s almost certain that the petition will be rejected by the henchmen of Swiss “justice.”
To these comrades, and to all who are fighting against every kind of power and its civilization, we dedicate the following words:
“Because solidarity among anarchists isn’t just a word.”
For quite some time now, an unusual discussion has been going on. Strangers are talking, sharing, and planning in different languages. They are talking about their experiences and the moments of illegality they lived in opposition to the state and its society. They are sharing the solitude of their cells, altered by days of negation and opposition in the face of the prison guards’ orders and batons. They are planning new rebellions to take the place of the ones that were interrupted by their arrests, and they continue to be anarchists of action, always in combat.
We are thus building the Black International of anarchist prisoners. The Black International isn’t a union that nullifies the diversity and individuality of each imprisoned comrade. Instead, we want it to be a cohesive trajectory that creates bridges of communication between us. Each letter, text, and publication that passes through our hands and each solidarity attack that reaches our hearts is a little “master key” that unlocks, even if just for an instant, the days and nights we spend trapped inside here. This gives us the strength to write about the things we want to experience and the things we have experienced but aren’t apologizing for.
We want the word “anarchy” to be heard in every spoken language and to lash out, through thousands of hands and in thousands of ways, against every moment of power—with texts, Molotovs, explosions, bullets, robberies, kidnappings, and escapes.
Therefore, let these words be a small promise to our brothers and sisters imprisoned in the furthest corners of the Earth. On the anarcho-calendar of possibility, someplace far from the eyes of the police and their snitches, a secret day is marked. On that day, comrades’ names will be matched to their faces, and hands will find the warmth of other hands extended in friendly greeting. At those gatherings, whether near or far, we will be on time and we will make sure to save two seats for you, brothers Marco and Zerman.
Friends among friends, comrades among comrades, conspirators among conspirators, forever anarchists in combat.
Because wolves are never housebroken.
—Imprisoned members of the Fire Cells Conspiracy Revolutionary Organization (Informal Anarchist Federation); February 6, 2012

SOLIDARITY with comrades Marco Camenisch and Zerman Elias.
LONG LIVE THE INFORMAL ANARCHIST FEDERATION/INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY FRONT.

Imprisoned Fire Cells Conspiracy Members: Political Statement Regarding Second Halandri Case Trial

Posted on January 20, 2012 by This Is Our Job

 

 

The following statement will be included in a soon-to-be-released Greek pamphlet entitled Inside Outside. The statement itself was written a short while ago and initially published on Indymedia Athens on December 31, 2011.

1. The “Innocence” of the Victim and the “Guilt” of the “Hunter”

The second trial directed by the state against the Fire Cells Conspiracy anarchist revolutionary organization is scheduled to begin on December 14. The trial will cover three separate Fire Cells Conspiracy attacks carried out with explosive devices (on the home of Interior Vice-Minister Hinofotis, the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace, and the apartment of politician Louka Katseli), as well as the possession of another explosive device.
The first trial covering the same incidents ended in the summer of 2010. Two Fire Cells Conspiracy members—H. Hatzimichelakis and P. Argyrou—were sentenced to 37 years each, while lengthy prison sentences were also inflicted on other defendants who had nothing to do with our organization. Now, four Fire Cells Conspiracy members will be tried (D. Bolano, G. Nikolopoulos, M. Nikolopoulos, and C. Tsakalos) who were at large during the first trial.
This trial is the next episode in a series of trials to be directed against us—trials that form a Gordian knot tied around us by the prosecutor’s office.
Our opinion of justice is already well-known. We have it written beneath the soles of our oldest shoes. We proudly declare our “guilt” before their system.
We are enemies of laws, power, police, courts, prisons, borders, exploitation, and—in general—this civilization of submission and compromise. For us, the innocent don’t exist. Only choices exist.
Insurgent or conformist, guerrilla or subordinate, human being or slave. In this life, we have chosen to be wolves, not prey. We therefore relinquish the “innocence” of prey and hold fast to the “guilt” of the hunter.
With this idea, we want to invert the rules of the trials they have created. Whether through our scornful absence from some or our completely hostile presence at others, our objective is to cause a number of small and large short-circuits within the judicial machine. In devising our strategy, we have designated the trial for the 14 incendiary packages our organization sent to international embassies and police and judicial organizations as the centerpiece, as it is to that trial that all nine Fire Cells Conspiracy comrades who have admitted their membership have been summoned.
Nevertheless, we feel that the trial beginning on December 14 also has its own unique importance and stature.

2. A New Anarchy Within Anarchy

The “Halandri Case,” as it’s been dubbed by the mass media, represents a decisive point in the trajectory of the new urban guerrilla war.
To illustrate its importance, it’s worth referring back to the state and conditions in which the anarchist current and urban guerrilla warfare found themselves at the time.
About two years had passed since the appearance of the Fire Cells Conspiracy and—more generally—the new anarchist urban guerrilla warfare. Quite a few groups in Athens and Thessaloniki were taking uncontrollable action, setting the night on fire and destroying the structures of power. The fabric of diffuse incendiary guerrilla war was also expanding to provincial cities like Kavala, Chania, Heraklion, etc. Of course, anarchist groups engaged in propaganda by the deed were collaborating with one another in some cases, coordinating arson rampages on a national level. In many of the texts/communiqués accompanying those attacks, a new perception was being documented, settling the crosshairs of its critique on social inertia, people’s passivity, and the complicit silence that allowed power to define our lives.
In parallel, and for the first time in Greece, words and concepts like anarcho-individualism, nihilism, and antisocial anarchy were escaping the immobility of theoretical texts and seeking their place within the communiqués of practice.
The fact is that a new anarchy was being born within anarchy, and it was reflected in posters, pamphlets, stickers, street slogans, and friends.
Meanwhile, the Fire Cells Conspiracy shifted from arsons to the strategy of placing explosive devices in churches, politicians’ homes, and ministries.
At the same time, the method of political executions once again appeared on the stage of revolutionary practice, as undertaken by the Sect of Revolutionaries in their actions, beginning with the execution of a pig from the Antiterrorist Unit.
All of this was naturally taking place upon the foundation laid by the revolt of December 2008. The marks from that revolt, even if they were scarring over after the sparkling repairs made to damaged shopping mall display windows, were still deeply inscribed on the consciences and hearts of dozens of young comrades who chose the riots as their home address. It was at that precise moment when the possibility of gradually creating and organizing more and more autonomous anarchist action groups became a primary commitment for many comrades in the new urban guerrilla war.
3. Antiterrorist Operation “Halandri”
The state and its police chose that period to strike. It was at the end of September 2009 when the Antiterrorist Unit operation involving the raid on our comrade’s home in Halandri was carried out—an operation that had already been “advertised” since the summer of that year in a number of lengthy television reports and newspaper articles, which subsequently began to talk about “striking at the heart of neoterrorism.”
What followed was a police gala—a fashion show of balaclava-wearing EKAM and Antiterrorist Unit agents parading in front of the television cameras, leading handcuffed comrades to the courthouses alongside other people who had nothing to do with us, yet who had unluckily kept up social relations with some of the arrestees.
Concurrently, the persecuting authorities issued arrest warrants for a few more people (five of whom are Fire Cells Conspiracy members) while police chiefs and political leaders congratulated one another on their “success.”
The arrests and warrants further reinforced the security dogma that was then playing an investment role during the pre-electoral campaigning of the period, with elections just around the corner.
Likewise, the police considered the issuing of arrest warrants—for people who thus automatically found themselves on the most-wanted list, connected to the ploy arrests of others who had simply visited the Halandri apartment—to be a guarantee that would curb the activity of the remaining Fire Cells Conspiracy cells as well as the new urban guerrilla war in general.
The police and the state hoped that the propaganda of fear and the creation of an intense climate of distrust and suspicion would be successful and bear the desired fruit. Their aspiration was for their walkie-talkies to fall silent, putting an end not just to the Fire Cells Conspiracy, but to the entire phenomenon of diffuse anarchist guerrilla warfare.

4. Rekindling the Fire from the Ashes

But laws were made to be broken, and plans were made to be foiled.
Ten days after the Halandri antiterrorist operation, the Fire Cells Conspiracy showed that those who were rushing to celebrate their funeral were quite mistaken.
Fire Cells Conspiracy comrades stealthily infiltrated a pre-election rally of tens of thousands of sheep voters awaiting a speech by prime minister C. Karamanlis and placed an explosive device 50 meters from the main rostrum. The device exploded, causing as much material damage as as moral injury to the propaganda then being tossed around about the dismantling of “neoterrorism.” The prime minister’s speech was somewhat delayed, and the Fire Cells Conspiracy had issued a provocation from within the new fabric taking shape.
The Fire Cells Conspiracy was the first organization in Greece to not suspend its actions for even a single moment after taking a repressive blow and while most of its members were either underground or in custody. Instead, it stuck to its foundations and even advanced its practice by beginning to use high-powered explosive devices.
The rest of the story is already known. Subsequent Fire Cells Conspiracy attacks were met with still more arrests—retaliation taken against people who had nothing to do with the organization (Antigone H., Nikos B., Nikos M., etc.).
The Antiterrorist Unit’s vindictiveness was so brazen, especially at the beginning, that in its bewilderment it made a number of blatant legal mistakes, even for itself. It’s no coincidence that some of the people arrested on suspicion of belonging to the Fire Cells Conspiracy were never even summoned to court, since it was objectively understood that they were unconnected to the organization. Also typical were the arrests of a number of AEK fans in the Kallithea neighborhood of Athens—including the mother of one of them—and their initial presentation as another Antiterrorist Unit success, with the arrestees being labeled Fire Cells Conspiracy members. The ridiculousness of those arrests was confirmed very quickly, and the people were released.

5. Memory Brings Perspective

Nevertheless, to call things by their name, without timidity but also without defeatism, the truth is that most groups and comrades within the new urban guerrilla war haven’t shown themselves to be capable of working the situation out and devising an offensive strategy.
Naturally, with the exception of a certain minority of TRUE COMRADES, just the opposite has occurred: lots of people have withdrawn and allowed the fear of repression to define them. As a result, many groups have disappeared from the arena of the endless insurrectionary night they had proclaimed in their communiqués.
In any case, what remains is certainly an important wealth of experience: practical experience, known mistakes, self-critique, memory, and therefore also perspective.
What began four years ago in Greece is now expanding on an international level. An international conspiratorial network that supports and promotes the principles and values of the INFORMAL ANARCHIST FEDERATION/INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY FRONT is spreading throughout the world’s metropolises. New Fire Cells Conspiracy cells are being assembled by anarchists of action and fire in Greece, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Russia.
After our arrests, the State wanted to put an end to the unpredictable project that began with the emergence of the new urban guerrilla warfare.
Now, the trials and sentences directed against us aspire to neatly write the official epilogue of a story that is nevertheless unwilling to end.
One thing is certain. Everything to say still hasn’t been said, and there are undoubtedly many actions still to come.
All of us, the comrades who took part in the wanderings that realized anarchy through the Fire Cells Conspiracy, have proudly stated that it is our honor to participate in the Conspiracy project. We have therefore taken political responsibility, disregarding all the consequences and years of prison that such a decision will “cost” us. Because more important things exist than a mutilated freedom that presupposes selling oneself out and regretting the choices that define our lives. In no interrogator’s office or courthouse will they get even the tiniest word of remorse out of us. What they will get will be our extreme hostility toward the system and its dignitaries.
We obviously aren’t inspired by the logic of holy martyrdom that requires “heroes” to sacrifice themselves for the revolution. Instead, we know that a free anarchist urban guerrilla is much more useful to the spread of anarchist revolution than one who is imprisoned.
Simply put, from the moment we found ourselves captives in the hands of the state, by revealing our membership and through our attitude in prison as well as in court, our objective has been to once again launch the commitment to anarchist urban guerrilla warfare into battle—a battle that never ended.
Let’s go again, from the beginning. The “Halandri Case” trial is our own return to the start, to our point of departure.
We need that point of departure in order to recommence more potently, more decisively, and more collectively.
While awaiting the days when we will confront our persecutors, we are making plans, engaging in our self-critique, discussing, thinking, and preparing new defiances in our uninterrupted war on power.

Miserable judges who hide behind your well-pressed robes,
we clearly see who you are.
Petty, inadequate, wretched little men
who vomit years of prison from your mouths.
But while you recite the charges,
our minds wander free and untamed.
They journey to secret meetings, to plans of attack,
to weapons caches, to pages from books, to laughter,
to disappointments, to pleasures and sorrows.
They travel to every corner of the Earth where
the rejection of Power blooms and anarchists of action live.
They wander, remember, and await a glance, a thought, a noise, a moment.
The moment when everything collapses because
of successive explosions and the rules are reversed.
At that moment the judges will be judged
and the guards will have to protect themselves.
Such moments, you must know, are always in the palms of our
Hands.

LONG LIVE THE FIRE CELLS CONSPIRACY. LONG LIVE THE INFORMAL ANARCHIST FEDERATION/INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY FRONT.
—Imprisoned Fire Cells Conspiracy members: Olga Economidou, Michalis Nikolopoulos, Giorgos Nikolopoulos, Christos Tsakalos, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Panayiotis Argyrou, Damiano Bolano, Giorgos Polydoras, Haris Hatzimichelakis

SOLIDARITY POSTER SAYS:

...in your dead world, we will always be

the nihilistic fuse that defect...

...creating the conditions

for the coming of cosmic chaos...

FREEDOM! To those accused for participation in the R.O. Conspiracy of Cells of Fire

FIRE AND GUNPOWDER From Indonesia to Chile… A proposition for FAI/IRF

December 4, 2011 

                                                                            FIRE AND GUNPOWDER
                                                                          From Indonesia to Chile…
                                                                           A proposition for FAI/IRF

A publication by the imprisoned members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire

We hear the song of fire that comes from far away. The words smell of gunpowder. From the other side of the world rebellious comrades burn the nights and liberate places and moments. we can hear them… They conspire, plan, attack… We do not have to say anything else, we leave our brothers and sisters to speak for us.
“We are all Conspiracy Cells of Fire. C.C.F. is not an organization or just a group. On the contrary it is a antagonistic expression of rage and contempt towards authority and its structures. To spread the C.C.F. all you need is gasoline, matches and the desire to fight for absolute freedom. We have begun the war against the existing order.
Mexican C.C.F./FAI”
The following text is dedicated to the Mexican C.C.F. and to our brothers and sisters of F.A.I. all around the world.
i)The wind blows against… from Indonesia to Chile
These previous months from every corner of the earth more and more explosive messages of fire and gunpowder cross borders and seas reaching us here, in the greek prisons where we are hostage, but not defeated.
Words mix with fire and behind the ashes of banks, government buildings, cop cars, nanotechnology labs, satellite antennas, private security cars and luxury shops, open a promise to friends and a threat to the enemy. They open a live proposition of the Informal Anarchist Federation (F.A.I.). An International Revolutionary Front (I.R.F.) is now organized in Italy, England, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Holland, Peru, Bolivia, Indonesia, Australia, Greece…
An idea that started its journey ten years ago from Italy from the brothers and sisters of the Italian F.A.I. and today is stronger than ever. F.A.I. definitely is not a theoretic game of harmless words and symbols, but an idea to live dangerously and anarchically with all our senses, without dead time and cowardly excuses.
Often the texts that come to our hands like the one from the Italian F.A.I., the one from the english comrades of F.A.I. titled “Rain and Fire”, the announcement of the Russian F.A.I., the call of the 11 anarchist organizations from Mexico, and many more, fill us with a weird awkwardness. Its this indescribable joy we feel when individuals and groups who do not know one another reach the same conclusions and feel the same feelings the exact same moment.
This feeling explodes in every word that unlocks the next and draws a common path of revolt. It is one of the few times that we do not have much to say. Most of our points are covered by our comrades. But we don’t want to consume the text in a series of compliments.
We know that we have work to do and a tough path with battles to walk through. Now we want to become even more dangerous, even more substantial, even more anarchist. This is why we write a lot from inside the prisons, because we want to act more.
ii) Doing a “translation” within the translation
Communication is the corner stone of our whole informal structure. We realize every word as a invitation of battle against authority. Every meaning we print on paper, we want to find a way for it to escape from theory and transform into practice. Only in practise are all theoretical values tested. Every word, however, that we use has its own historical origin. Often the same words express different meanings from country to country. The Informal Anarchist Federation (F.A.I.) consists of an international anarchist formation between individuals and cells that speak different languages, but however pursue to express through their actions, their common desire for the anarchist revolution.
This is why the translations of texts and communiques that circulate in the circles of F.A.I. are of great value in order for one to meet the ideas of the other. Often, however, a second “translation” of the translation is necessary in order to explain a few words that have different meanings from place to place.
Here we make a first attempt of this double translation in order to clarify every possible confusion amongst comrades. The first indication, came from our brothers and sisters in Chile when the comrades of the Columnas Antagonicas Incendiarias (antagonistic incendiary columns) promoting the dialogue through action, in a communiqué with which they claimed the responsibility for the arson of the Banco Estado in Santiago, openly expressed their reflections concerning the use of the word revolution and the meaning we as C.C.F. give it.
Their objection is based on the fact that for them usually the meaning of revolution is identified with the generalized popular uprising, that is composed through a sudden conscious awakening of the masses. This revolution is usually invoked by Marxists and few “anarchists” that justify the use of revolutionary violence only when the social conditions will be mature, thus dismissing the meaning of individual insurrection. Therefore, speaking of such a revolution is like speaking in the name of the people, something that intensely reminds the armed vanguards and the Marxist perception, with which we have no relation.
Of course, it is true that we often use the meaning of revolution in our texts considering self-evident that by repeatedly speaking of anarchist anti-socialism, anarcho-individualism, the tension of insurrectionist comrades and aggressive nihilism, it is apprehensible what we mean with its definition. But often the great distances, the lack of translations, as well as the specific use of every word in every place, stresses to us the need to be more clear. We clarify, therefore, that in no way do we feed with illusions of a future vague social awakening from one moment to another, neither of a popular uprising with anarchist characteristics. We have no trust in the masses who with their cowardices and immobility conserve this authoritarian system. This is why we are not only enemies with the state, but also with the social values that support it, vindicate it and reproduce it as a social relation in their interior. Even social protests for better wages, social security, more rights, are mobilizations with an expire date, that lead back to passivity.
We believe that every person individually must become conscious, must realize the crime of the existence of authority, abolish it from their life style and at the same time find comrades to strike the spread out authority of the state. This is why we believe in the anarchist minority struggle and the new anarchist urban guerilla.
Besides, the meaning of revolution on its own does not mean liberation. Lets not forget that the dictatorship of communist parties was established, mainly after revolutions. We do not want any revolution, but an anarchist revolution that will abolish every form of authority. This is why from now on in order to become clear in our texts and our actions we will speak of the anarchist revolution.
Another misunderstanding that often happens has to do with our reference to armed struggle. We know that in some other countries, for example Italy, the meaning of armed struggle refers to past decades and the logic of armed pioneering.
Here we must clarify that in no way do we believe in enlightened vanguards and “revolutionary” guidance. Whatever we do, we do it first of all for ourselves. Through our attacks we communicate with other comrades, spread the anarchist values, strike the system, deny the role of the victim and enjoy our lives through the most wild and liberating of its versions.
Simultaneously, we want to structure the opposing awe, opposite the enemy making clear the existence of a constant civil war between the insubordinates and authority. We seek to terrorize the terrorists and pass on to them the fear of vengeance to their camp, mansions, parliaments, ministries, police stations.
All this offers us a great personal satisfaction. This is why we define ourselves as anarchists-individualists. We do not like any kind of opinion that wants to transform the anarchist revolution from a genuine way of life into a military mission with rules and leaders at the service of the general “well-being” of society. We will not sacrifice ourselves for the “well-being” of a society that often gets kicked by the bosses and says “thank you”. If through our speech and actions, we cause liberating questions and doubts to some other people against the modern way of life, this is good first of all for themselves. It would be a great joy and honour if in their faces we meet future comrades. And if not, we will never, not even for a moment, abandon the battle against authority and our anti-social critique, in order to be liked by most people.
There is, however, one more parameter of the critique towards the use of the term “armed struggle”. A critique that comes mainly from our brothers and sisters of the insurrectionist anarchy. The reference to armed struggle can easily be misunderstood as a monomania, a fetishism of guns, as an informal hierarchy of the means of the anarchist struggle that places armed struggle as the supreme form of action.
We, so much in our speech, as well in as our actions never put the forms of conflict with the system in a hierarchical order. We never believed that an action becomes more or less “anarchic” depending on the percentage of violence it concentrates. Simultaneously, however, we are absolutely against the separations of the traditional “anarchists” who justify and defend a violent action, only when it is expressed en masse in a demonstration, but they undermine and disdain it when it is carried out in the darkness of the night by a determined minority of comrades. As well we never agreed with a stupid separation that is expressed by some “anarchists” in some countries and makes anarchist violence acceptable only when it is turned against a material target, but on the contrary marginalizes and condemns the practise of the execution of an officer that staffs the system, speaking of respect of human life. For us there is no respect for the human life of a cop, a judge, a prosecutor, a journalist or a snitch.
When, therefore, we use the term “armed struggle” essentially we also send a message to those traditional old school anarchists who with their ethology, want to stop the beauty of the wildness of anarchist action and confine it to more calm and mass forms of protest against the system. For us an anarchist comrade can use a pencil and paper up to a kalashnikov and bombs against authority and its civilization.
Obviously, therefore, today we support and promote every action that attacks the system in its own special way. Fly posting, self-organized publications and blogs, militant demonstrations, sabotage, attacks with stones and paint, expropriation of banks, bomb attacks, arson of state and economic targets, executions of officers of authority, is our gear in our arsenal of anarchist practical theory. This is why when we speak of armed struggle, we do not just speak of guns and bullets, but also about all the above and anything that frightens authority and is on the side of the anarchist barricade.
Now the fact that we used the term “armed struggle” at a great degree in order to break the fetishism of low intensity violence that is promoted by the reformist tension of anarchy brings us up against the misapprehension we mentioned previously. This is why because we do not want to be defined by association with the cowardice of some and be like something we are not, from now on we are thinking of replacing the reference to armed struggle either with the explanation of its polymorphy, or with the wider meaning of direct action which includes all we want to do.

iii) The FAI/IRF network

Through the dozens of cells of the I.A.F. (FAI), there is a substance, the substance of anarchist propaganda in practise. Appearance of more and more newer cells of FAI from Indonesia to Chile and from England to Russia is a new prospect of action for the anarchist struggle. The prospect of an informal chaotic network of co-support of anarchist cells is capable to cause serious problems to the smooth function of the system. It is an accountable threat which however should not be consumed in mutual and authentic salutes between the cells and the individualities which compose it.

It is important to go onto the next step. We have already spoken of our common values. We believe in the same values of direct action., which is expressed in the here and now of the anti-state struggle that meets with the anti-social criticism, and the international anarchist solidarity, which knows no borders and countries. Also, we support and promote aformalism as the most authentic form of anarchist organization. Finally, surely all of us who support FAI share the same craziness, walking against our times indifferent about the price, whatever that is. This price is the deafening contradiction of an anarchist revolutionary. An anarchist revolutionary who loves freedom and life, is one who risks to lose both, either locked in a cell, or dead by a cops bullets.

But, these moments of wild and defiant attack against authority and its subjects deserve something more than a whole life drowned in compromises and quitting

The fact is that all of this has been written before in the public dialogue that has opened within the circles of FAI-IRF. Thus, it is not enough to simply have a gun in your hands, such as FAI, but to be able to use it so its worthy.

4. Fire and Gunpowder

Now, therefore, we will speak about our strategy.

First of all, we want to say two words on the proposition put by our brothers and sisters of the Italian FAI concerning the use of the symbol of CCF by the groups of the IRF writing on the anarchy star their name.

For us our symbol with the five arrows all targeting authority in the centre symbolize the significance of the international anarchist struggle that can take place on the five continents of the world. Also, the different size of the arrows expresses the polymorphy of anarchist action and the different intensity with which its expressed every time.

At the same time, the five arrows stress the importance and value of FAI-IRF because they are like the five fingers of a hand. Each finger on its own can bend the enemy, but when they are connected form a fist that rises unbreakable against the system. FAI-IRF is this fist.

As well the arrows aiming towards the centre symbolize the fusion of the subversive forces resulting in the fission and diffusion of our attacks against the galley of modern civilization. The star with the anarchist ‘A’ symbolizes our heart which belongs to the anarchist revolution.

So for us it is of great joy and pride to give our symbol to the FAI-IRF in order for every group or cell of the IRF to use it freely by putting their name over the star.

Now as for the strategy of our struggle, all us who support FAI do not expect things to happen on their own and get to the anarchist revolution. We prefer to be the facts which will create the upset in the system.

This is the strategy of the minority anarchist struggle. Until now this struggle usually takes place fragmentarily and many times is isolated and is limited to the national borders of every land.

An important exception are the international calls for action that are carried out by initiatives of comrades. We carried out such a call during the period of the first trial against the C.C.F. and we realized with extreme joy that the seed of solidarity found fertile ground in the lands of Argentina, Italy, Russia, Chile, Greece, Indonesia, Spain, England, Mexico, Australia, Germany, Poland, Austria, Holland etc.

Now we know that the network of FAI/IRF can qualitatively upgrade such an idea. Besides, the substance of the FAI is in the heart of the development of an anarchist dialogue through actions. As was written and very well-aimed by the Italian comrades of the FAI, anarchist attacks never ceased, but if they are united in an international informal network based on mutual support, they become more visible and more violent, while their spreading and their revolutionary prospect multiplies.

Thus we place our proposition. We think that a dialogue of action between the cells of FAI must from time to time seek a common thematic treatment. More specifically, a cell of FAI/IRF when striking a target, through the communiqué with which it will claim responsibility, can at the same time open a dialogue with the other cells. For example, lets suppose that some comrades in England choose to attack the CCTV cameras in the streets and generally the means of control and surveillance. If they want, through their communiqué they can set the thematic of cameras and of the technological control of our life, analyse it, present their positions and propose to the network of IRF that other cells deal with this matter as well. Obviously, the rest of the cells and individualities (whoever wishes to of course) can carry out equivalent actions, i.e. attacks on shops which sell cameras and security systems, DNA labs, cameras on the street, security companies etc. The communiques which will follow surely will not agree absolutely with the first communiqué which basically called for the specific action expedition. But its there where we meet the substance of the dialogue of action. When cells all around the world attack a common target (i.e. cctv cameras) and at the same time they open a discussion of reflection around this matter. Because all disagreements, agreements, objections, analyses, placements, forward our awareness as anarchist individuals, one step further. Surely these discussions that follow such a practise, have nothing to do with the delaying of an old anarchism which is satisfied to consume all of its “militancy” in voluble theoretical talks in amphitheatres and harmless drinking of the alternative anarchist lifestyle.

FAI/IRF does not delay while waiting in the queue for the next social revolt or the next social crisis. It takes the speech and action in its hands because the time is now and the place is here. The thematics we can grab in order to cause expeditions of FAI are unlimited. There is militarism-the army, nationalism-fascism, control technology-surveillance systems, the police-the oppression, the spectacle-the journalists, the destruction of nature-civilization, economic exploitation-the banks, anarchist solidarity-the prisons, and dozens more thematics that make us sworn enemies of this world.

Of course each cell before stating an international proposition of action must include the strategies and make its positions clear. This is why it is especially important that in the dialogue we want to open we present the thought of each thematic in order to perceive its content. Even an attack on a same target, i.e. on a bank, the speech of a communiqué can express a different perception. The more traditional anarchists through such an attack, usually express their opposition to the state and capital, while we as a piece of the anti-social – anarcho-individualistic tendency, through the arson or blowing up of a bank besides our rage against the state we also express our despise to a society which while crying about the economic crisis, at the same time feeds the banks and goes into debt with loans and credit cards, mortgaging its life.

For us the FAI/IRF is a new anarchy which is born through the overcoming of traditional anarchy and its bureaucratic procedures.

This proposition of coordinated attacks in an international expedition of a thematic makes the sabotages by FAI/IRF stronger, and effective. Imagine if within a month for example, 30 different companies of private security are torched and blown up, in different countries. This is surely a strong message towards private cops and the property world.

Of course, we should bear in mind, that authority lurks and reads all of our communiques-calls. We should not get caught off guard and that is why we should be careful with the way a FAI/IRF expedition is carried out. For example, if a specific target is set, such as pharmaceutical companies, it is possible, especially in the countries where FAI has an intense presence and action, that the police could be watching possible targets, wanting to arrest the comrades who will attack.

It is important therefore, that the specialized targets should be hit individually or be included within a wider thematic, i.e. the attacks against pharmaceutical companies can be included in the thematic of our opposition towards the science which alienates our life.

Of course, the majority of the thematics and the equivalent targets (i.e. banks, police stations, political offices, churches, journalist vehicles, fascists e.t.c.) is so chaotic that it is impossible to be protected by the guards of authority.

Here we want to stress that it has been written before that FAI/IRF is an informal anarchist network of cells and individuals which acts anonymously. The coordination we propose (as has been proposed by other comrades of FAI in the past) in no way suppresses the autonomy of each cell. The international expeditions of coordinated actions do not monopolize the characteristics of FAI. The cells continue to act autonomously and only when and if they decide to, organize and participate in an international call.

As well, we consider very important in this dialogue of action that besides the individuals and cells of FAI, also participate imprisoned anarchists who support the proposition of IRF. It is a way for whoever of us lacks the enjoyment of direct action because of our captivity, to remain active and “accomplices” in the anarchist revolution.

For the end we kept an invitation we want to address to our brothers and sisters all over the world. We are talking of incidents which we believe can constitute a dynamic call of activation of FAI/IRF. The first is a very unpleasant news which comes from Indonesia and unlimitedly saddens our thoughts. It is about the arrest of three comrades (a fourth got away and is wanted) after the arson of bank. The arrested comrades, according to the police, had on them a communiqué of FAI/Indonesia which expressed their war against the state, as well as their solidarity to the imprisoned anarchists all over the world.

The second incident is two cases of juridical persecutions that will take place in Chile. We are talking of the persecution of comrade Luciano Tortuga, who was heavily injured when the explosive mechanism which he was carrying to place at a bank exploded on him. His injury injured our hearts and our love for anarchy will accompany him in every difficult step. At the same time, on the 28^th of November five anarchist comrades go on trial (Fransisco Solar, Monica Caballero, Felipe Guera, Omar Hermosilla, Carlos Rivero), accused of subversive action. Some of them were arrested in the past for the known case “caso bombas”, which is a landmark in the oppressive strategic of the state of Chile against the anarchists. These comrades are brothers and sisters to us without ever seeing their face, but knowing their texts and ideas, we know that their mind and heart dances to the same the rhythm, of freedom and the anarchist revolution.

We believe that the matter of the international anarchist solidarity and liberation of comrades, is one of the steady values and strategic priorities for the anarchists of action. This is why we, the CCF of the period-FAI, invite all the individuals and cells of FAI/IRF to not leave our brothers and sisters in Indonesia and Chile alone. There are words which so beautifully accompany fire and gunpowder, sending a salute and a signal of solidarity to the imprisoned comrades. Every blow against the structures of the state and its society is a factual gesture of friendship, to those who are missing from the nights of fire and are imprisoned in some cell. In this specific expedition of international anarchist solidarity of FAI/IRF, we consider that every symbol of authority (banks, security companies, police stations, courts, prisons, luxury car dealerships, political offices, cameras etc) has a wonderful opportunity to be destroyed. The comrades who are persecuted in Indonesia and Chile are accused of different actions between them, this is why the polymorphism of blows on different targets, is an indication of the undivided front of the new anarchist urban guerilla and the new anarchy. Also, this way the organization of this expedition is facilitated, since the autonomous choice of each target from the equivalent cell is aided and the preparedness of FAI/IRF is tested in practise. Simultaneously, its impossible for the cops to track our planning, since it is chaotic and disseminated into the metropoles of the world like a virus of disorder and destruction. Of course, all comrades must awake and we should not underestimate the opponent.

By organizing the chaos we become more dangerous. FAI/IRF is today the new prospect for the structuring of a Black International of Anarchists, for the spreading of global sabotage and direct action. We propose therefore, the smoke from the destructions, fires and the explosions, to travel from Chile to Indonesia, transferring the vision of FAI over seas and continents.

The imprisoned members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire 

translation  with respect and revolutionary Solidarity by Actforfreedomnow!/boubourAs!

Athens: Declaration by CCF member Christos Tsakalos during the 6th trial session of the ‘of 2nd Halandri case’ (1-2/2012)

en.contrainfo.espiv.net

According to your court indictment, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire is a terrorist organization. But words were never, nor are or will ever be neutral. Words acquire the meaning given by the person who uses them. We do not speak the language of the judges and prosecutors. We speak the language of the hunted who have refused the victim’s role, the wanted who have not handed themselves in to the authorities, the prisoners who have not caged their will for freedom, the anarchists who have never kneeled in front of Power. Solidarity, Dignity, Urban Guerrilla, Anarchy, these are our words, that we unleash as an insult against your system.
Yes, that’s right, we are anarchist urban guerrillas and proud to participate in the rebellion of our desires, under the name Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.
For you, who stand behind your judicial benches, we are terrorists because your soul is a scared shade which only feels safe behind cops and in the books of your dead laws.
We are terrorists against your interests and your Power. Life, physical integrity, safety and property of the judicial clique, the political authority, the oligarchy of the wealthy and the bosses are being targeted by both us and our unarrested comrades.
However, a different terrorism is hovering above the lives of most people. Terrorism is the endless queues in a tax office, in public organizations, in banks. Terrorism is the bosses’ orders to their staff. Terrorism is the heavy hand of the police landing on minor delinquents and poor devils. The worst terrorism, though, is the TERRIFYING ascertainment that no person raises its head. Terrorism is the silence and passivity. Terrorism is the fact that no person undertakes its own life.
We have also seen your terrorism; the terrorism of justice. We have seen tens of prison inmates returning from your courts, having an empty gaze and their lives burdened with several decades in prison. We have seen friends and relatives collapsing from your ‘just’ decisions.
We have seen your expressionless faces and your well-fed bellies fitting into your expensive and armored cars. We have heard and know your hefty salaries and your secret, under-the-table agreements that are of service to your valued buddies, the big publishers, the industrialists and your political supervisors. How many centuries in prison have you truly dished out throughout your career in order to serve a system which itself generates, through exploitation and oppression, those who you consider criminals?
Hence, outside of the books of your laws, if someone wants to seek the meaning of terrorism in real life, where the scared today dreads the threatening tomorrow that’s yet to come, you yourselves and the Power are the terrorists.
As for our terrorism, it is the human will for freedom and anarchy. Apparently, you dread this will, so you vote new terror laws, you establish exceptional courts-martial, you take special security measures, you do not allow us to talk to our relatives and companions during trial recesses, and even when you take us to the detention rooms, ten metres from your court room which is built inside the prison, you handcuff us. This means that you are really scared. This is an honour and pleasure for us, because it shows that a group of people, a circle of anarchist of praxis can terrify an entire State. This shows that, away from the silence and passivity of the mass, the will of only a few people is sufficient for your system to be crushed.
You should know that there are several insubordinate individualities living self-exiled from your society, who prepare and arm themselves, while they collectivize their own desires to overthrow the history of servants and their masters. That’s when you will really sense the concept of anarchist tromocracy; an anarchist tromocracy which is expressed with fire on banks, ministries, police stations; exploded with bombs outside luxurious villas of wealthy people, courthouses, multinational companies and industries of nature and animal exploitation; written with bullets fired on the dictators of our life and freedom; spoken inside court rooms by the mouths of prisoners of war, such as we who are not scared of your convictions and your prisons. This is the anarchist tromocracy. Thus, revise your indictment and add in your documents that CCF is an anarchist terrorist organization.
And all of us, who participate in this organization, are proud to be its members, and our rage is an axe over your heads that’s spinning… spinning… spinning…
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