Call to mobilize to get hunger striker Alfredo Cospito out of the 41-bis solitary confinement regime.

French version. German version. Italian version.

LET’S MOBILIZE AGAINST ALFREDO COSPITO’S ISOLATION IN 41-BIS AND FOR AN INTERNATIONALIST REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT

Banner in the Station of Luméville, place in struggle against the project of burruying down nuclear waste Cigéo in Bure (FR)

A few days ago, anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito [1] began a hunger strike that he will not end unless the regime of total isolation known as “41-bis”, under which he has been held since last May, is ended.

From prison, Alfredo continues to fight for anarchy, with an internationalist perspective. Today, as in the past, he fights against the system that permeates the walls of the prisons where he has been held, contributing to the struggles outside; always linking thought and action.

Let us be inspired by the thoughts and actions of our comrades and discuss them, not to follow them and idealize them uncritically, but to better question our goals, our desires for revolution, our futures and our commitment to this struggle, to make the diversity of tactics, which is a strength of our anti-nuclear struggle in Bure, a means to strengthen an internationalist revolutionary movement.

Since May, Alfredo has been placed in solitary confinement regime 41-bis [2]. This is a regime of surveillance, control and extreme isolation that aims to psychologically destroy the prisoners and remove any capacity for rebellion: “…a section placed below ground level, thus without air or natural light… restricted spaces arranged vertically, so that the eye is deprived of any horizon… This structure gives a sensation of oppression, claustrophobia, psychological torture…” (excerpt from a letter from a prisoner held in 41-bis at Bancali) . It is similar to the “mitard” in France, but for very long or even definitive periods [3]. One can only get out if they repent: it is a way of causing pain, with the aim of extracting confessions or information. In other words, it is torture. As in Italy, countries like Spain, Germany or Turkey continue to systematically use similar regimes of solitary confinement to break the will of rebellious prisoners, and it is rather pathetic to see these same countries denouncing the torture carried out in other countries while they themselves practice it, legalize it and normalize it.

Since the beginning of Alfedo’s hunger strike, a strong mobilization of solidarity is sparking throughout Italy and is emerging in other countries. Prisoners Juan Sorrocheo [4] and Ivan Alocco [5] went on hunger strike in solidarity, communiqués – including one from Francisco Solar [6], an anarchist imprisoned in Chile – are published every day, demonstrations take to the streets, infrastructures of power are targeted, the roof of the headquarters of the national TV station Rai in Genoa is occupied, the Italian consulate in Hamburg and the offices and cars of the prison profiteers “chubb” and “SPIE” are attacked, a parcel bomb arrived (this summer, before Alfredo’s hunger strike) at the home of the CEO of Leonardo SpA, the state-owned company that produces weapons of war and cutting-edge technological devices.

Through this mobilization, Alfredo’s unlimited hunger strike reaches its full impact. While the Italian State tries to keep our comrade under control, to incarcerate him, to deprive him of his voice, to torture him with a dehumanizing regime of isolation, it will not stop his impact, because he is not alone, he is still part of a struggle movement that supports him.

The Italian State is murdering our comrade without imagining the strength of resistance that can be born from it. Today, in order to prevent Alfredo’s murder, we can take part in the solidarity movement that has emerged in Italy and elsewhere. Let’s make public the torture regime called 41-bis. Let’s use all the means at our disposal to put political and economic pressure on the Italian state to reverse the inhumane conditions of detention. And let us continue the struggles outside the walls for which our comrades are behind bars!

What to do? A thousand things and much more. Attack the Italian power centers outside its territory? Target the companies involved in the prison system (ideas in Bruit et Saccage fanzine), in electronic surveillance? Counter the nuclear industry by targeting Cigéo subcontractors, by burying POMA, by preventing the irresponsible energy rush? The mobilization against 41-bis can take many forms. We can achieve much more than we dare to hope for. If we believe in it, if we give ourselves the means, and if we commit ourselves fully to it.

Our thoughts are with all the people who died in solitary confinement under the blows of the guards or under psychological pressure.

Solidarity with the anarchist Ihar Alinevich, who is on hunger strike, and with the other prisoners of the Belarusian dictatorship who are being tortured for deviating from the regime’s order [7]

For anarchy, solidarity, love, freedom,

Let us awaken our revolted passion so that our rage does not decay into gloom,

In order not to fall into depoliticized or impactless ways of life, let us ask ourselves questions about our strategies of struggle,

Let’s clarify our revolutionary intentions,

Let’s attack the leaders of our world,

And let’s overthrow it in order to create new, liberated societies to be imagined,

Let’s make Alfredo come out of 41-bis

Comrades of the anti-Cigéo struggle in Bure

PS : an updated feed republishes the news of the actions and solidarity texts in French language, by clicking here . The updated feed of the Italian website Il Rovescio is more complete and republishes the news in Italian and in different languages: click here .

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NOTES:

1. Alfredo Cospito is an anarchist imprisoned by the Italian state since 2012. After his arrest, he claimed at trial to have shot Roberto Adinolfi, the CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, a company that designs and builds nuclear power plants, an action carried out by the Cell Olga / Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front, on May 7 of the same year, in Genoa. In 2020 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, accused, among other things, of having carried out explosive attacks against power structures between 2005 and 2007. In 2022 he was transferred to the high security prison of Bancali, near Sassari in Sardinia. Since then, other charges and procedures have been added to his file, in order to further restrict his detention conditions. These latest charges were targeting his numerous contributions to the debate on the struggle, the modes of action, the revolutionary perspectives of the movement, including its interview “Which international?” with the anarchist newspaper Vetriolo, its contribution to the assembly of Bologna of June 9, 2019 and its contribution on the occasion of the 3rd Anti-prison Days in Bure from 2 to 8 March 2020.

Many of his texts have been spread and translated, a list can be found here .

2. This detention regime consists of one hour of visitation per month, with a separating glass, under electronic surveillance and with audio and video recordings. Only in the case that the family members are not able to come to visit, as an alternative there is the possibility of one phone call per month, of 10 minutes, but for this the family member of the detainee has to go to a police station or to another prison. In addition, there is only one hour of open air and one hour of socializing in the section, in groups of two to four inmates: the composition of the groups is decided directly in the bureaucrats’ rooms in Rome and is valid for a few months (see We do not allow the murder of Alfredo Cospito on hunger strike since October 20, call for international mobilisation).

3. See Jean-Marc Rouillan’s testimony on solitary confinement in the disciplinary section.

4. Juan Sorroche is a Spanish anarchist who lived in Italy and was arrested on May 22, 2019, after more than two years on the run. He was first prosecuted in a series of trials related to the No TAV struggle, against the Lyon-Turin railline project, and then for an action against the headquarters of the Lega, claimed by the “Haris Hatzimihelakis Cell / Black International (1881 – 2018)”, for which he was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

5. Ivan Alocco, recently imprisoned in Villepinte prison, near Paris, is charged with a series of arsons of diplomatic cars, company cars of Enedis, Eiffage, or companies involved in the construction of prisons.

6. Francisco Solar, anarchist prisoner in Chile, convicted with Mónica Caballero for several bombings.

7. For more information, see the page of the Belarusian Anarchist Black Cross, where there are several articles on the use of torture in Belarus, including, for example, the experience of anti-fascist Viktor Filinkov accused of terrorism.

03/11/2022