From 6AM the Gossos* d'Esquadra (Catalan regional police) under orders from the Audiencia Nacional (National Court) raided private homes of anarchists and social spaces in Barcelona (Gracia, Sants and Sant Andreu neighborhood) and Manresa. According to corporate media poisoning the mass arrests are a continuation of Operation Pandora against what the police and the judges believe are the GAC (Coordinated Anarchist Groups) whom they accuse of being responsible for the attacks claimed by anarchist groups during the years 2012 and 2013. (It should be recalled that last year the State Attorney General stated that 'anarcho-terrorists' no longer have the capacity to attack.)
According to the media, there 9 or 10 detainees, and many others arrested including from the Ateneo Libertario de Sants.
The state is the only terrorist!
Freedom for the arrested anarchists!
*Note: Gosso is a Catalan word for dog. This is what we call the Catalan regional police.
(via ContraMadriz)
28.10.15: A police operation began at 7AM this morning raiding several homes and properties in the neighborhoods of Sants, Gràcia, Clot and Sant Andreu de Palomar in the city of Barcelona and Manresa. The police action was ordered by the Audiencia Nacional (National Court) and is a continuation of Operation Pandora, which led to the arrest of ten comrades and the preventative imprisonment of seven of them last December. Among the properties searched were Revoltosa social center on Rogent street in the Clot neighborhood and the l'Ateneu Llibertari de Sants on Maria Victoria street where ten police vans were in attendance. When the news was leaked, dozens of people demonstrated in solidarity and took to the streets of Sants marching behind a banner in support of the detainees. Minutes later as the demonstration reached Masnou street two vans of riot police arrived and proceeded to violently suppress the demonstration.
Searches also took place at a house on Perill street in the neighborhood of Gracia, a house in the neighborhood of Santos and other private homes in Sant Andreu de Palomar. Police made a total of 9 arrests. At every place police raided they encircled the whole street and impeded the free movement of the neighborhood. In details leaked to the press by the police they revealed that the operation led to the arrest of 9 people for the alleged crime of "belonging to a criminal organization with terrorist aims."
In response to the raid a call has gone out for demonstrations at 8:00PM at la Plaça del Diamant de la Vila de Gràcia.
(via Directa)
PDF booklet of an extensive interview with anarchist prisoner Nikos Romanos put together by Act For Freedom Now website.
Nikos Romanos was a model teenager, a good student from the bourgeoisie, son of a well-known novelist, until on December 6, 2008 he was involved in a traumatic event. His best friend, the young anarchist Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15 years) falls under the bullets of the police in the streets of Athens. Shot in the heart, he dies in his arms. This event leads to some of the most intense urban riots of the early 21st century in the West, and Nikos is already there on the front line that same evening, enraged, dignified in the face of the media (total rejection), and respected by comrades despite his young age.
To the rhythm of the backlash from the Greek anarchist movement, Nikos is forever changed by this experience, immediately throwing himself headlong into the anarchist struggle, until his arrest five years later after a double armed robbery in the Kozani region. He is tortured and accused of belonging to the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire (armed anarchist-nihilist organization), which he denies, whereas he takes responsibility for the robberies (and their need in order to spread anarchy). He and his five co-accused Giannis Michailidis, Dimitris Politis, Andreas-Dimitris Bourzoukos, Argyris Dalios and Fivos Charisis, maintain a confrontational attitude towards justice throughout, but Argyris Dalios and Fivos Charisis categorically deny ALL charges in relation to the Velventos case. However, on October 1st 2014, they are all declared guilty of the robberies and each is sentenced to fifteen years’ prison. All six of them were acquitted of alleged involvement in the CCF.
Nikos Romanos has also claimed responsibility for four incendiary actions.
DOWNLOAD LINK
Insurrection News received on 17.08.15:
At 5.30 am Thursday August 13, the anti-authoritarian collective BumZen was raided by a gang of masked cops from the police anti-criminal gang unit. They were followed by an army of armed cops, who handcuffed everyone present in the building at the time. The pretext given was that they were looking for participants in a riotous Reclaim The Streets demo the previous weekend. However, it is clear to us that this was a politically motivated operation against the infrastructure of the radical movement.
Although about 25 people were present during the raid, none were allowed to supervise the police while they were searching through their rooms and property. The police picked out the individuals, who had their official address at BumZen to bring them to the cop shop and charge them under paragraph 134a, participation in a riot.
Three other locations were raided the same morning. Two 17-year olds were arrested and remanded, accused of smashing windows at a bank in Østerbro, despite their status as minors and vandalism being a fairly petty charge.
On Saturday August 15 a demonstration took place from Blågårds Plads to BumZen, where there was a people's kitchen. All proceeds collected are being donated to to the prisoners.
Against repression and police brutality!
Solidarity with the prisoners!
