FIES en Lucha
Short history of the prison struggle in Spain and the repression against the anarchists

At the end of the 1960’s and the beginning of the seventies there was a revival of social and revolutionary struggle across the whole of Europe. In Spain, strikes, occupations of factories, and the formation of independent workers’ councils (“asambleas”) arose, together with the renewed armed struggle, like that of the MIL and the Autonomous Groups. The transition of the fascist dictatorship to a “democratic state” in the middle of the 70’s made no difference, at least on this point: the repression was severe, and the prisons were overpopulated. The struggle for the liberation of political prisoners transformed quickly towards a struggle for the liberation of all prisoners and the abolition of the prison system.

In January 1977, with the ‘Manifesto of the prisoners of Carabanchel’, the mainstream prisoners intervene in the struggle. Rebellions in prisons all over the country break out, with 35 uprisings and a number of protest actions. The prisoners organise the struggle in general meetings in the prisons and in February 1977 the COPEL (Coordinadora de Presos Españoles en Lucha - Coordination of Spanish Prisoners in Struggle) is established. After a hundred young people are severely beaten and 3 inmates stabbed, a bloody uprising begins in one institution. The moment the police arrive 26 prisoners slit open their stomachs, others swallow foreign objects, and one prisoner who is moved to the hospital, manages to escape. In the hallways of the prison, a wounded prisoner writes the word COPEL on the walls… The day after, 98 prisoners are transferred to several prisons and 40 of them disappear into segregation. From then until 1979, uprisings, hunger strikes, work strikes, etc follow each other all over the country. The demands of COPEL contain an amelioration of the prison conditions, amnesty for all ‘social prisoners’, and the end of all laws and structures inherited from the Franco era.

The answer of the state was, like always, double-handed; on the one hand, negotiations, on the other, brutal repression. COPEL is infiltrated and the most active members are eliminated. Many of them are locked up in the newly built prison of Herrera de la Mancha. Herrera de la Mancha is the first of a series of prisons (inspired by the German political prisons) specially constructed to observe, divide, and isolate the prisoners, where physical and psychological terror is practised systematically, and where we already find characteristics of a prison within a prison, or what will later become the FIES. In these places, in the words of the general director of prisons Carlos Garcia Valdès, the ‘maladjusted’ are locked up, or those considered to be the “most dangerous” detainees. The management of these prisons is also guaranteed by the Guardia Civil, rather than regular guards. Upon arrival at Herrera de la Mancha, the prisoner is put in the ‘first degree’ of observation (total isolation). If no infringement is made, he goes over to the ‘second degree’, where the differences in treatment are minimal (a little bit longer exercise, with a couple of other prisoners.) When the prisoner has gone through all the different degrees without infringements, he will be transferred to another prison.

In spite of these very repressive conditions, uprisings also break out in these prisons. For example in Meco (Madrid), at the beginning of the 1980’s, where the prisoners set up the APRE (Asociacion de Presos en Regimen Especial - Association of Prisoners in Special Regime.) The struggle is ferocious, the prisoners refuse every form of dialogue, and a radical minority wants only one thing: to kill the guards and policemen, arm themselves and fight to the death. The repression that follows, and the fact that in the 80’s the revolutionary élan ebbed away, meant that there was almost no struggle in prisons for nearly a decade.

At the beginning of the 1990’s there is a revival of the collective prison struggle. On the 27th of June 1989 an uprising breaks out at Puerto de Santa Maria; the insurgents are transferred to Herrera de la Mancha and put into isolation. In the same year the political prisoners of GRAPO also begin a hunger strike that will last 435 days and will attract a lot of attention. On the 14th of February 1990 the prisoners take guards as hostages in Alcala-Meco. They demand the release of Juan Redondo Fernandez and of the prisoners of Herrera de la Mancha. In March, uprisings follow in Daroca, Nanclares de la Oca, Caceres II, Alcala-Meco and Fontcalent. In October of the same year, from within the dungeons of Herrera de la Mancha, APRE is reconstituted (APRE (r) reconstituida) by the prisoners Javier Avila Navas, Laudelino Iglesias, Luis Riva Dávila, Vicente Sánchez and Antonio Losa López. The APRE (r) manifesto circulates in the prisons of the Spanish State. On the 18th of March 1991, the prisoners in Herrera finally take action, hostages are taken, and a list of 18 demands is released. The revolt is crushed, but the APRE(r) is on everyone’s lips and minds, and more revolts, hostage taking, escapes, take place in several prisons throughout the country (in Zamora, where the juvenile prisoners from Herrera were transferred to; in Herrera again on the 11th of July 1991; in Tenerife, where Juan Redondo and Xosé Tarrío take hostages and succeed in broadcasting their demands to the general public, etc.

As a reaction to these revolts the state installs the FIES. The most active members of the APRE(r) are locked up under the FIES regime; and a lot of those who now have started the fight again, are already in their 10th, 15th or 20th year in the darkest dungeons of the Spanish prison system.

F.I.E.S.

The FIES was introduced through a simple administrative circular under the management of the General Director of the prisons Antonio Asuncion, now leader of the Socialist Party of Alicante. Although the Constitutional Court temporarily put an end to the FIES regime in 1994, after a complaint by 2 prisoners, it still exists until this day. The new penitentiary regulations, under article 93, provide a regime that consists of:

-ISOLATION: Exercise in an individual cage for a maximum of 3 hours per week, together with no more than one other person.
-WITHOUT TIME LIMIT: Normally the status gets revised every 3 months, but in reality it gets prolonged every time so that the isolation can last years, even decades.
-LIVING CONDITIONS: Totally handed over to the whims of the penitentiary centre. They can introduce censorship and limit correspondences, refuse visits, exercise only in a cage, no personal clothing, strip search and the arbitrary use of X-rays, continuous physical and psychological torture, etc.

F.I.E.S. en lucha

Struggle against the FIES has always been there, from the first day, by individuals or small groups, with legal and ‘illegal’ means (direct action), but by the end of the 90’s a number of FIES detainees have realised the necessity of coordination, and through letters to other prisoners and support groups they start to organise the struggle.

What also contributes to a greater awareness and willingness to fight and must be mentioned, is the publication in 1996 of the book by Xosé Tarrío, “Huy hombre huy. Diario de un preso FIES”, and the liberation of Patxi Zamoro Duràn, FIES prisoner who was transferred to Catalunya, where the FIES was not imposed, got his freedom and travelled around, with the book of his friend, Xosé, talking about what happened inside. And then there was, also in 1996, the arrest and imprisonment in FIES units of some Italian anarchists, which drew a lot of attention (the “Cordoba 4” - case.)

The first coordinated action of the prisoners consist of ‘chapeos’ (refusing to leave the cells for exercise), but they quickly see that if their struggle didn’t expand to other prisoners and if there isn’t enough radical support from outside, the consequence of their action would only be increased repression. Through actions, letters and communiqués the struggle expands to other prisoners and groups outside the walls, such as the AFAPP (Association of Friends and Family of Political Prisoners, linked to GRAPO), the Mothers Against Drugs, Association Against Torture, etc, and after a while an agreement on 3 basic demands is established:

1) Abolition of the FIES regime and every form of isolation
2) Ending the dispersion of prisoners (to prisons far from their homes, families, and friends; dividing the prisoners from each other by moving them to different prisons and wjthin the prison itself)
3) Immediate release of all terminally ill prisoners.

With these demands a collective hunger strike starts from the 16th to the 19th of March 2000. In spite of all the difficulties about 400 prisoners participate in 21 different prisons. It is a symbolic action (4 days like the 4 walls of a cell), a way of testing the balance of power, after the unexpected growth of the movement during the previous weeks both inside and outside of the walls, in Spain and beyond its borders.

In Barcelona the creation of AAPPEL (Asamblea de Apoyo a las Personas Presas en Lucha - Assembly for the Support of Imprisoned People in Struggle) contributes a lot to the cause; information is spread through conferences, radio, demonstrations, and several support actions.

Also in the Basque country and Galicia the information is disseminated and support actions are carried out. In Madrid a FIES dossier is put together and, in spite a good deal of friction between the support groups, there are demonstrations and actions carried out. Also in France and Italy support groups are set up, and information is disseminated and actions are carried out. Here prisoners also join through solidarity statements, or, especially in Italy, by turning to actions themselves.

In the following months the actions continue both inside and outside the prison walls. Of course there is a reaction of the State. On one hand there is heavy repression: mass transfers, censorship, beatings, torture, etc. The communiqués of the prisoners are alarming; there are even a couple of deaths. On the other hand there is a media campaign full of lies: the prisoners in struggle are represented as dangerous criminals, the papers claim that they are led by ETA, etc.

On the 24th of April 2000 a letter bomb is sent to the ‘journalist’ J.M. Zuloaga of the paper ‘La Razon’, someone who has been particularly active in writing lies about the struggle. The action is later claimed by ‘Los Anarquistas’. After this claim several prisoners in Villanubla engage in an exercise strike in solidarity with those who sent the bomb. In the period from May to July several letter bombs are sent to fascist newspapers. None of these bombs explode effectively. On the 9th of November, 2 anarchists, Eduardo Garcia Macias and Estefania Maurete Diaz, are arrested; they are charged with involvement in the letter bomb campaign. Also in several cities houses are searched. The media do their best to disseminate the lies of the police: Eduardo and Estefania are accused of forming an armed group together with prisoners (in isolation!??) and would have organised the assaults. Estefania gets released, acquitted of all charges. She is the friend of Santiago Cobos, one of the most active prisoners, and this is probably an attempt to break him by arresting her. Eduardo gets released conditionally, but on the 17th of November, after serious pressure from the government, he is arrested again and locked up in Soto. He’s a member of the Anarchist Black Cross and that could be convenient for the police, zealously looking for a nonexistent ‘international conspiracy’ or an ‘international criminal organisation’, to fit up a lot of individuals on that basis, a common practise.

In the meantime, in the prisons, the call for an unlimited hunger strike is getting louder and louder. A couple of prisoners have already started this, like Laudelino Iglesias and Gabriel Bea Sampedro On the 1st of December 2000, a collective unlimited hunger strike begins. This strike will end after a month, 50 prisoners participate while 150 others carry out support actions. It seems that the repression and the total media black out caused a degree of demoralisation. But the evaluation is not all negative, a more sober and realistic assessment of the situation is made now. A “communiqué from the resistance fighters in La Moraleja prison, issued in January 2001, reads as follows:

“Greetings comrades,
Our evaluation of the hunger strike of last December is rather positive in relation to the Movement of Prisoners in Struggle and the solidarity in the street. That we make a positive estimation, doesn’t mean that we are not aware of the fact that our mobilisation force in prison and our possibilities to put “pressure” via the street are still very limited... Let’s try to be objective. But remember that this is a reflection at a certain moment in the development of our movement of struggle and that as a movement we have only made our first steps, laid the foundation to move forward in a coherent and effective way, and that if we can pursue this line of organized resistance we will broaden little by little the reach of our actions and will gain a greater strength as well inside as outside. There is no other way if we want to move in the right direction; from the perspective to make our struggle a continuous activity against the capitalist system, we take the struggle against the prison apparatus as point of departure.

For the first time since COPEL we have taken a stand against the criminal policy of the State in the prisons, in a collective and organized manner, with clear objectives in the short, middle and long term, and in order to win this movement persists and appropriates itself the methods of struggle. In our opinion it is crucial to lend continuity to our struggle and to secure a basis that would make it possible to hold on to the objectives we have set ourselves.

Further, it is a fact that our struggle has brought about a dynamic with the consequence that a solidarity movement in the streets has been born which expanded every day and delivered the proof of citizenship . Because of this great diversity there are within this movement many contradictions; these came to the fore especially in the weeks before the hunger strike of December, but nevertheless, it was demonstrated that with our “mobilisation” these contradictions can be tempered and that unity in action prevailed.

This solidarity movement in its turn is made up of different sections of the Resistance Movement, which broadens even more the small margins from which we depart; anarchist unions, associations of family members and friends of political prisoners (AFAPP), unemployed committees, anti-imperialist committees, neighbourhood committees (as Amaitu), etc. actually did support our struggle. And then include those from beyond our borders. As we strengthen our bonds with them and join their struggle, our drum will meet more response, will be more difficult to silence, to isolate, to suppress...

The combination of these two aspects, this of the inside and this of the outside of the prisons, has given an important extra value to this strike. We are sure that a lot more people than only our comrades can appreciate or observe this. The State for sure can’t let all this happen, and tries to break the movement with all means at its disposal. That’s the origin of the political frame up against the anarchist comrades in Madrid, the house raids in Barcelona and other places to instil fear, the ruthless criminalisation campaign meant to deactivate and undermine the support for the strike, the absolute information blackout during the strike, etc.; without speaking about the repression in the prisons itself. Of course there are other cocks who crow now, such as the humanists, the Christians and all those reformists who previously monopolized the “struggle” in the prisons and thereby used those who run and control the stable. Now they can’t do anything against us anymore and finally can’t infect us neither because of their means nor because of their influence, we have to fight them too. As we said already in a former communiqué, they are part of the social mechanism of the State/Capital and with our struggle we have come in direct confrontation with them.

If the enemy starts to “worry” so much about our little world, that is only because of one thing: we are on the right path. It is always distressing not to be rewarded despite the hard work , as was the case during the hunger strike of December. But we would never think to put “opportunistically” our immediate objectives before our ultimate objectives, because we are aware that our hard struggle has been transformed into a really inspiring and binding force for a whole range of diverse concerns which begin to unite in the struggle against the yoke of oppression and capitalist exploitation which began somewhere between these damned walls... and which might in time grow into a “material force". From the spark comes the flame. Unity and struggle gives power! Resistance inside and outside!”

It is thus clear that the struggle will be long and harsh, and that such a prolonged struggle will ask determination and a whole range of tactics that leave room for individual and local initiatives, according to the circumstances (e.g. many prisoners are seriously ill and most of them cannot participate in long term hunger strikes.) All prisoners can take action, talk about their own situation and put their own demands forward, but they will always connect with the movement by adding the principle demands: end of FIES, end of dispersions, release of all incurably sick prisoners. In the beginning of 2001, also a 4th demand is agreed upon: the release of all prisoners who have completed 20 years of imprisonment (which should be, according to Spanish law itself, the maximum term), and a call is made to go on fasting every month. Besides that, on the outside, AAPPEL is transformed into ACOP’S (Assembleas Contra les Prisons), building a network to support the prisoners in struggle, “to break the isolation and silence and to go beyond the concrete demands (which we consider necessary) and to denounce the Penitentiary System as a tool of the groups in power to maintain their hegemony and the existing situation of social injustice”.

The unity and continuity of the movement are thus secured by the four basic demands, regular collective actions (such as the monthly chapeos and hunger strikes), the broadening and strengthening of the coordination inside and outside, debates about the prison struggle and its place in the social and political struggles going on. The whole of the following year, and until today, one can see a steady stream of letters, communiqués, testimonies; of prisoners in struggle talking about the daily horrors and repression they have to endure and about the resistance and struggles going on inside (chapeo’s, hunger strikes, work strikes, letter campaigns, sabotage, etc). Also in the streets a whole range of actions take place all over Spain - demonstrations, info-meetings, conferences, and direct action.

Internationally, the prisoners connect with support groups and other prisoners in France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Britain, the U.S., where prisoners join with them by writing solidarity statements and/or by participating in the monthly hunger strikes. Many also participate in the solidarity actions with the prisoners in struggle against the introduction of the F-type prisons in Turkey. The struggle in Turkey (with the ongoing death fasts, the brutal military assault on the prisoners on the 19th of December 1999, the struggle of the families), as well as the struggles of prisoners in the U.S., such as a collective hunger strike in the isolation units of Texas in September 2001, make clear that the struggle against isolation units really is worldwide.

In March 2002 another collective hunger strike takes place in 38 prisons, in which close to 500 prisoners participate. Besides the increased number of prisoners participating, an important new factor is also the mobilisation of women prisoners (e.g. in Alcala.) The silence of the press, imposed by the Ministry of Interior, is deafening… On the 28th of May 2002, a huge uprising takes place in the Quatre Camines prison in Catalonia. Following another senseless beating of two young inmates by the guards, more than 250 prisoners decide to start a work strike. A strike committee is formed which formulates 12 demands and asks to speak to the Director of the Penitentiary Institutions, also the presence is requested of the counsellor of the Justice department of Catalonia and of the Red Cross. Negotiations start, but it is clear that the prison directorate doesn’t want to give an inch. The next day the Mossos (Catalan anti-riot police) storm the prison and the rebellion is crushed with brutal force. The media this time can’t ignore what is happening in the prisons. But, as always, they only repeat the official State-sanctioned version of the facts: About a “group of dangerous prisoners” who rebelled because they didn’t want to work and which was “contained” by the police and the prison authorities. Not a word about what the prisoners themselves have been saying for almost three years. One prefers to look the other way if the prisoners talk themselves, and another believes what they want to believe; that there is no violence and torture in the prisons, no isolation regimes, no exploitation of prison labour, no transfers far away from their families and friends, no inhuman incarceration of people who are terminally ill, no prisoners who are held for decades, and so on.

Repression and Radicalisation

Except for some small armed attacks on the outside (such as those carried out by ‘International Solidarity’ and “Los Anarquistas”), all actions have been non-violent. The answer of the State though is nothing but violence. In the legal domain, the Aznar government introduces in May 2003 - in the midst of the antiterrorist hysteria, the start of the war in Iraq, etc - a criminal justice reform which provides among other things an increase in the maximum prison sentence from 20 years to… 40 years. For many prisoners this means that they will not leave prison alive: the “silent death penalty”…. Inside, the repression continues unabated, with constant transfers, censorship, denial of visits, humiliations, abuses, beatings, torture, death. On the 14th of February 2002, Antonio Falces Casas dies in the hospital of Terrassa, after being transferred from the prison of Quatre Camins, from a cancer that wasn’t treated properly. On the 4th of January 2003, Ruben Gonzales Carrío commits suicide in the prison of Pontevedra. On the 17th July 2003, Paco Ortiz, from the prison of Badajoz, writes his last letter; he too commits suicide. Several prisoners go on strike to express their sorrow and anger about the loss of a dear comrade and to protest this umpteenth forced suicide - ‘every suicide in prison is a murder by the state’. Since 1991, 14 comrades have died in the Spanish prisons.

And although Eduardo was released on conditional bail in November 2001, after 11 months in custody, the repression against the movement outside grows quickly.

On the 15th of October 2002, 4 anarchists in Valencia (Ivan, Isaac, Jordi en Pasky) active in the squatters’ movement are arrested in Valencia. They are charged with “disturbance of the public order” and “property damage” (related to an anti-fascist demonstration a week before) and later, after the interference of the Chief of the Information Brigade of the Spanish Police, with “terrorist association” … They risk 10 to 15 years of imprisonment. The evidence seems, again, to be based on the contacts the 4 had with some prisoners. At the end of November, one of them, Isaak, is released on bail. On the 11th of March 2003, the Audiencia Nacional decides that the accusation of terrorism cannot be held, the other charges though remain; also Ivan, Jordi and Pasky are released after posting bail.

On February 28, 2003, 5 anarchists are arrested, 4 in the Barcelona region (3 in Viladecans, 1 in Besós) and 1 in Almeria. They are charged, by the super judge Garzòn, with forming a terrorist cell. Three of the Catalans are soon released (on bail), the fourth, Fernando, on the 10th of March 2003, and Emilio, from Almeria, on the 29th of March, after he had seen 8 prisons in one month. They too will have to stand trial later (for one of them 11 year sentence is demanded) .

Also in March 2003, in a verdict of the Central Court n°5, presided by Garzòn, on the PCE(r)-GRAPO, the Cruz Negra Anarquista/Anarchist Black Cross - Iberico is named as a “recruiting machine for the GRAPO” (sic). This means that the Anarchist Black Cross of the Iberian Peninsula falls under the ‘law of parties and organisations’, and as such could be declared illegal. It is the first time since Franco that an anarchist organisation can be effectively forbidden. Before this, it was also discovered that the CAN/ABC-Madrid had been infiltrated by an undercover police agent who also worked within the support group for the GRAPO-PCE(r) prisoners.

Early in July 2003, 4 anarchists are arrested in Valencia again, Amanda, Eduardo, Jordi, and Miguel. All four are charged with sending a letter-bomb to the fascist organisation España 2000, but the device exploded prematurely on the 24th of April in the post office, slightly wounding two postal workers. They are also suspected of five other attacks on real estate offices and banks, and of sabotaging a machine of a building industry. Jordi and Miguel are released a few days later without further charges. Amanda in the mean time has taken responsibility for some of the attacks, before the judge she declares that it was “a response against capitalism that destroys the El Cabany neighbourhood”. She remains, together with her 20 year old friend Eduardo, considered to be her co-accused, in prison.

In the early morning of Tuesday September 16 2003, six people are arrested in Barcelona during a large-scale police operation by a special unit of the Guardia Civil. They too are anarchists and are arrested under the anti-terrorist laws. The six are presumed to be members of a “clandestine anarchist group” which has set up an urban guerrilla campaign in Barcelona. They are said to have sent a letter-bomb to the Greek Embassy in Madrid, on the 8th of September 2003, in solidarity with the prisoners of Thessalonica, and to have carried out several attacks against banks and other institutions. The six anarchists are: Carolina Forné Roig en Rafael Tomás Gaspar (both 25 years old and from Tarragona); Joaquin Garcés Villacampa (43 year old anarchist prisoner who had escaped from prison some months earlier), Igor Quevedo Aragay (25 years old, from Guipuzcoa), Teodoro Hernández Martínez (26, from the region La Rioja) and another anarchist comrade, Roger (21 years old, from Barcelona). After five days “incommunicado”, those arrested appear before the Audiencia Nacional, presided by super judge Garzón. Only Teodoro is released. It turns out that a seventh person is wanted and that an international arrest warrant against him has been issued.

At the beginning of October 2003, Xosé Tarrío is arrested again and locked-up in the prison of Teixeira. Xosé was only released 5 months before; on the 16th of May 2003 he was released after more than 15 years of imprisonment, of struggle, solidarity and dreams of anarchy. After his liberation he continued the struggle, amongst other things within the CNA/ABC. He has been charged with some robberies, and in … is sentenced to 11 years.

On the 17th of November 2003, more than 3 years after his arrest, the trial against Eduardo Garcia Macias began. He is still charged with a double murder attempt (two parcel-bombs) and possession of explosives; the public prosecutor demands 22 years. Finally, on the 19th of January 2004, after a trial where there was a particular lack of evidence and ‘amnesia’ and contradictory evidence by the police witnesses, Eduardo was acquitted of the murder attempts, but convicted of the possession of explosives, for which he gets 4 years. Eduardo, who always maintained his innocence, will almost certainly appeal.

The arrest of Eduardo (and Fani) at the end of the year 2000 was the start of the criminalization campaign and the repression of the anarchist movement in Spain, in particular of the prisoner solidarity movement. This movement grew and radicalized quickly, tore off the democratic mask of the Spanish state, and became slowly a menace for the established order. Also, the struggle moved from support for the prisoners in struggle to support for the struggle against prison itself, and against the whole society of control and repression.

This repression, and the radicalisation, are of course not separated from the broader context and other events in Spain and the rest of the world.

With the appearance on the European continent of the so-called “anti-globalisation” movement (Prague, Göthenburg, Genoa, Brussels, Barcelona, Thessalonica, etc), the second Intifada and the brutal military assaults by the Israeli army (which moved and mobilized also the Arab and Muslim communities in Europe), the popular revolts in Latin-America, September 11 in the States, the war in Iraq, etc, it seems that the party of the ruling classes of the world is over, and that they seriously start to worry ànd to prepare themselves for a next reactionary assault. The new laws against “terrorism” mean undoubtedly a ‘fascistisation’ of the whole state and society, and it is no coincidence that it was Spain and Italy (and Turkey) who eagerly followed the United States and urged the European Union to accept the laws - as such they can now legitimize and intensify a “dirty war” which has in fact been going on for years. The last couple of years we have witnessed a wave of arrests; dozens of members, ex-members or alleged members of the (old) armed groups (GRAPO/PCE®, ETA, RB, N17, DHKP-C, …) have been arrested and imprisoned. In the last year we have also seen increasingly the support groups becoming a target of the repression machine. The outlawing of all political groups related to ETA is the most obvious example, but also members of the AFAPP, the Socorro Rojo, the Cruz Negra Anarquista are subject to surveillance, arrests, and imprisonment because of their involvement with “terrorist groups”… In the end, the war against terrorism and the new security laws are aimed at all dissidence against Capital and the new world order, and the complete subjugation to and acceptance of the ruling system is demanded.

In this context a sometimes heavy discussion has grown within the movement about the meaning of solidarity, about prisoners and criminality, about prison and prison society, about repression and il/legality, about violence, about freedom, rebellion and revolution…

Confronted with the full violence of the State, the creeping fascistisation of the minds of the people and society, the growing contradictions and tensions world wide, it is the case that within a part of the movement a certain paralysis has appeared, while at the same time small groups of anarchists have made the step towards clandestinity and armed resistance.

Against this paralysis (which expresses itself in different ways: the eternal waiting for the right ‘objective and/or subjective conditions’, the pathetics of the holy innocence and victimisation, the self confinement into the alternative ghetto, the escape into drugs and alcohol, etc), they have chosen for the individual revolt, complicity and revolutionary solidarity. Against the creeping pacification and disarmament, they have chosen to arm themselves; with stones, molotovs, (small) bombs, guns, but also with critical reflection and theory.

In their search for ways to escape from the daily experience of powerlessness and from the suffocating grip of the State on society, they have searched to connect with past experiences of struggle against prison and with a current of anarchism which is forgotten or denied by many but was always an integral part of it. Therefore the renewed interest in COPEL, MIL-GARI, the 1st of May group, the anarchist guerrillas after 1945 (Sabate, Facerias, Massana, etc), Durutti and the FAI, etc.

Besides this there is for sure the influence of the insurrectionalists. So called insurrectionalism today is a current within anarchism which became better known thanks to the writings of Alfredo Bonano and others, but especially since the Marini case in Italy. And with the arrest in Cordoba in 1996 of Claudio Lavazza, Michelle Pontollilo, Giovanni Barcia and Giorgio Rodriguez, the ties with Italy (and Greece) have undoubtedly been tightened and strengthened.

Under the name “Cinque C” (“Five C’s”): “Contro il Capitale, il Carcere, I Carcerieri e le lore Celle” (against capital, prisons, guards and cells), several attacks were made in December 2002 and June 2003 against Spanish targets, in solidarity with the FIES prisoners. In October 2003, a failed attack is committed against Iberia in Rome, this time in solidarity with the prisoners of Valencia and Barcelona and in remembrance of Paco Ortiz. In the period October-November 2003, more than a dozen attacks are carried out in Athens. The reasons are the protests against the Olympic Games, solidarity with the 7 prisoners of Thessalonica (of which two are Spaniards, Carlos and Fernando), with the 6 of Barcelona, as well as with the imprisoned alleged members of the 17 November Movement and the Revolutionary Peoples Struggle (ELA). On the 23rd of December 2003 two fire bombs explode in two garbage containers near the home of the President of the European Commission, Prodi. The attack is later claimed by the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) - which unites some of the other groups. It seems to be the beginning of a real anti-Europe campaign: in the beginning of January 2004, several European politicians (Prodi again, and some right-wing members of parliament) and institutions (Eurojust, Europol, the European central Bank) receive parcel-bombs. Although they’re again rather ‘harmless’ bombs, merely symbolic, the campaign is world news. According to the authorities themselves, since 1999 some seventy attacks have been carried out against banks, political parties, security services, etc by what Europol calls the “anarchist Mediterranean triangle”.

To what extent the “insurrectionalists” within the anarchist movement have a chance to provide a perspective for anarchism and the revolution we all want, depends on the capacity they have to learn from past revolutionary struggles, and are able to avoid, for example, the mistakes made in the 1960’s and 70’s. It also depends on the extent to which the broader anarchist movement can achieve real solidarity with those who have decided not to let themselves be pushed against the wall, but on the contrary to take a step forward. This solidarity must first begin with learning who these people are, their writings, ideas, experiences, and the criticisms which motivate their activities and actions. Only then can an open and honest debate take place which advances the movement as a whole, and confronts the hypocrites who hide within our ranks, the yellow-spined, ‘white block’ liberal, ‘soft cops’, and de-maskers, who spread only fear, keep divisions in place, and serve reaction.

Then each of us have to decide for ourselves. That is our fate and that is our freedom.



(Taken from: “Wij vragen geen toestemming om vrij te zijn. Dossier over de gevangenisstrijd en de repressie tegen de anarchisten in Spanje, 1999-2003”, Anarchist Black Cross - Gent, mei 2004, 56 p) -updated version September 2004 - work in progress) Anarchist Black Cross - Gent

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