Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 22:04:23 -0500
From: dn701-AT-freenet.carleton.ca (Jane Scharf)
Subject: Re: (en) the greatest mount-up against anarchists since 30 years in europe (fwd)


I am very concerned about the safety of these person particularily those
who are in  prison. I will forward this message as broadly as I can. If
anyone gets a hold of addresses for Italian officials I will send them a
letter to show that the word on them is getting out. I am very poor but I
could house some of those in hiding if they can get out of the country. I
will also publish an article in the street newspaper I am involved with. I
am willing to help in anyway I can to expose this travesty of justice.

My phone: 1-613-258-6176
Address: Box 1935 Kemptville, Ontario, Canada, KOG 1JO

Jane Scharf

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 07:59:00 +1000
>From: luc pac <lucpac-AT-freenet.hut.fi>
>To: aut-op-sy-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
>Cc: compcoll-AT-xchange.apana.org.au
>Subject: (en) the greatest mount-up against anarchists since 30 years in europe
>
>this is an official statement edited by the Italian Anarchist Defence
>Committee.
>==========================
>
>THE GREATEST MOUNT-UP AGAINST ANARCHISTS
>SINCE 30 YEARS IN EUROPE
>
>On the morning of 17 September, 1996, around 300 members of the Carabinieri
>special squads carried out raids and arrests against anarchists across Italy
>This act of repression is part of a campaign orchestrated by the Roman judge
>Antonio Marini and the prosecutors Ionta and Vigna, a campaign which seeks
>to prove the existence of a mythical subversive anarchist paramilitary
>organisation. The first wave of raids occurred in November =EB95, but at that
>time the authorities found neither weapons nor bankrolls nor hideouts nor
>documents concerning the 'gang', which lacked indeed even a name.
>
>FIRST COMUNICATE (9/17/96)
>
>The actions of Tuesday 17 September were carried out by masked and armed
>Carabinieri. The results were very serious: 29 arrest warrants and dozens of
>people that have been officially informed to be under investigation. Some of
>the accused were arrested and immediately taken to the Rebibbia prison
>(Rome) to await judge Marini's pleasure; others are currently in hiding. It
>is still not known exactly how many or who has been arrested - the latter
>have been denied the right to see anyone, and have not even been able to
>talk to their own lawyers.
>
>The charges are very serious and range from subversive association to
>robbery, the manufacture of weapons and homicide. In practice this means
>accusing the anarchist movement of all the unsolved crimes of recent years,
>without any proof being offered. An indication of the climate of persecution
>surrounding the arrests is the judge's statement that "I want to arrest a
>gang of terrorists before I retire".
>
>Another very disturbing matter is the press release issued by the
>Carabinieri, which talks of a non-existent subversive organisation
>structured on two levels: the first, hidden and illegal, is said to be
>protected by a more visible "second level", ideal for "camouflaging itself
>in the social milieu and interacting with other subversive cells in a
>dangerous, criminal brotherhood". It's clear that this notion of a "second
>level" is intended to strike at all those situations of widespread sociality
>and solidarity (like El Paso in Turin and other occupied places throughout
>Italy) which have furnished and continue to furnish support to all those who
>will not submit to the repressive apparatuses of the State. The theorem of
>the "second level" is the mechanism through which a very violent attack
>could be carried out against many situations of the movement in the near
>future.
>
>UPDATE  - DECEMBER 1996
>
>Tuesday the 10th of December there has been the preliminary hearing of the
>trial ruled by the Judge Marini & C.: the hearing began and was postponed to
>the 16th, 17th, 21st  and 24th of January 1997. In this first part they will
>only decide if we all will be put on trial for armed group, sabotage, etc.
>Maybe they'll decide that someone will be sentenced just for other charges
>or absolved... (many of the 21 people arrested the 17 of September are
>charged of bank robbery, murder, massacre, etc).
>
>Since the 17th of September (when "Operazione Pontelungo" started) till now
>(20th of december) 3 people are on bail (Stefano Moreale, Francesco
>Berlemmi, Apollonia Cortimiglia, their arrest hasn't been confirmed), 4 are
>under house arrests (Salvatore Gugliara, Tiziano Andreozzi, Giuseppina
>Riccobono, Cristina Lo Forte) they all were on hunger strike), 8 are
>fugitive (Massimo Passamani, Guido Mantelli, Roberta Nano, Rose Ann Scrocco,
>Barcia Giovanni,, Condr=DA Salvatore, Angela Lo Vecchio, Evangelia Tzioutzia),
>14 remain in jail.
>
>Beside these 29 people that Marini ordered to arrest, there are other 39
>individuals suspected taking part of this incredible organization Marini
>called O.R.I.A. (Organizzazione Anarchica Insurrezionalista Armata). This
>abbreviation, on the contrary of what pigs said on TV, never appeared. In
>both raids operated by the Carabinieri on the 16th Nov. '95 and the 17th
>Sept. '96 they didn't find any guns or documents showing the 'organization'
>program, any of these things. Of course they found many letters from/by the
>jail, many fliers, books, posters, agenda, etc.
>
>The only things they found are guns and explosives in a cave in Rome in '91:
>this is part of another made-up against anarchists about the Silocchi
>kidnapping (for what has been arrested Gregorian Garagin, Orlando Campo,
>Francesco Porcu, all involved in the Marini inquiry). The 18th of December
>the Third Grade Court decided that the entire trial has to be repeated - in
>the 2nd Grade they sentenced to prison for life and 22  years two
>anarchists. Even in this trial proofs were ridiculous. Just one example: one
>of the anarchist condemned is accused for typewriting a letter with a
>machine that wasn't on sale yet.
>
>One of the most important things to know is the following: the judge and the
>Carabinieri forced and paid a young girl 21 years old (ex girlfriend of one
>of the anarchists arrested in Trento) to talk and 'confess' about the
>'anarchist gang' crimes from 1985 to 1995. She's never been an anarchist.
>Her declaration are ridiculous (meeting of the band in some Italian squat
>quietly programming murder and assault and similar things). The 13th of
>December the Second Grade Court sentenced to other 2 years of jail the four
>anarchists catched in Trento (Sept. '94) for other two bank assault without
>any verified proof but the declaration of this young girl who accused
>herself to take part in this assault and in this phantomatic organisation.
>The Court of Trento believed her even if she wasn't able to remember
>absolutely anything about 'her' robbery. But it doesn't matter for the
>Justice: they needed to prove she's right because she's the only proof of
>the existence of the band. This permitted Marini to start with his inquiry
>in '95.
>
>Then Marini joined together every inquiry against anarchists of the last 10
>years: the bank robbery made by Alfredo Bonanno and Pippo Stasi (1987), the
>presumed bomb attacks by Marco Camenisch, every investigations made by the
>judge Vigna for 'subversive association' against anarchists...
>Many of the 29 were already in jail: Antonio Budini, Carlo Tesseri, Jean
>Weir and Christos Stratigopulos since sept'94 for the bank robbery near
>Trento; Orlando Campo, Gregorian Garagin, Francesco Porcu for the Silocchi
>kidnapping; Horst Fantazzini (since 25 years) for many robbery and assault,
>Marco Camenisch for bombs attack.
>
>ANARCHIST DEFENSE COMMITTEE
>
>Comitato Difesa Anarchici are individuals taking care of the anarchist
>prisoners in Italy. His functions is to keep the contacts between prisoners
>and the outside, with letters, packages, money and whatever. To pay the
>legal expenses, and to promote counterinformation. It already exist a
>bulletin, coming out every two months, about the situation of the prisoners>
>Our 'defense': we refuse as anarchists, as Commitee, to 'defend' our
>comrades as innocent. We don=EDt care about what the judges say. They could
>charge everyone for any kind of accusation, but according to us they are in
>prisons just because they're anarchists. This is our position.
>
>There are also other 'anarchists' who discriminate between charges: bank
>robbery is -maybe- okay (is an anarchist correct act) not murder (criminal
>act). Apart the way these 'anarchists' could decide if the accusation are
>true or not (will they form an 'anarchist' police and tribunal?) we as
>Commitee don't have any but a technical role: we receive letters from people
>in jail -also personally unknown- who declare themselves anarchists. We
>wrote'em, we find'em a lawyer of our 'list' who's available for the defense,
>we send to prisoners money and we try to help them also to pay their lawyer
>if we have money enough. We are connected with other groups, two of them
>send books for free to prisoners (one just anarchists books, the other one
>any kind of books).
>
>As Committe we also broadcast in the only free-radio station in Torino
>(Radio Black-Out) and send radio services weekly to other similar radio
>throughout Italy. We print a bulletin and send it to many people in Italy;
>recently we're also on computer networks. Everyone who work with us isn't
>paid (of course).
>
>A particular note: especially for this last police operation, we don't work
>anymore with most of the 'anarchist' newspaper that didn't write quite
>anything about it, or really ridiculous articles, showing how far they were
>from these facts. The FAI (the Italian Anarchist Federation) and its
>newspaper wrote about their 'anarchist pacifistic' attitude (of course
>always saying how the State is bad toward anarchists). Not a single word of
>solidarity. No one of the arrested has been recognised as an anarchist. So
>we think it's useless to send'em any kind of bulletin. Of course not a
>single group or collective connected to FAI sent messages, money or anything
>else to us or to prisoners. Clear enough?
>
>We suggest everyone who want to manifest his solidarity to translate and
>diffuse every information about this story, the biggest repression against
>anarchists in last 20 years. Fliers, posters, books, pamphlet, meetings,
>radio broadcasting, parties, concerts, demonstrations, actions, everything
>is useful. Of course we also need money, but this is not the most important
>support you can give us from abroad. In different countries people are
>working to complete translation & infos: here you can find some addresses.
>We will try to get copies of any translated documents, so ask us (before
>start working if already exists some stuff in your language, we'll send you
>a copy or the contact).
>
>You can find infos of CDA on the net:
>(mailing list A-INFOS-AT-LGLOBAL.COM and
>CSLIST-AT-ECN.ORG and web pages http://www.ecn.org/zero/anarchy.htm)
>
>write (also in french, spanish or -of course- italian but please,
>typewrite) to:
>CDA c/o El Paso, Via Passo Buole 47, 10127, Torino, Italy
>packages or money to:
>Mario Anzoino, Via Ormea 150, 10126, Torino, Italy.
>Telephone/fax/answering machine: 0039-11-674.833
>
>---
>Key fngrprnt (since 1993) =  52 DB 96 92 FA 1D CE 71  0D 63 96 E5 9A 9B 07 0A
>http://www.ecn.org/zero
>
>
>
>
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Protest, Actively Resist, and Surpass, Jane Scharf




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