Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information

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Mexico, 5E: New charges against anarchists Amélie, Fallon and Carlos

 No Responses »
May 302014
 

translation from Spanish taken from Contra Info

On the morning of May 16th, comrades Amélie and Fallon were notified that they would be taken to the Reclusorio Sur (Mexico City’s Southern Penitentiary) to testify on new charges under federal order.

At around 8am, both were transferred to the court, where they met comrade Carlos.

After waiting almost all morning, they were finally informed that an arrest warrant was executed for the offense of damage to others’ property, in the form of “arson in a building with some person inside.” The three comrades did not make a statement, and once the hearing was over, they were brought back to the prisons where they’re being held since February 2014 (Carlos to the Reclusorio Oriente, Amélie and Fallon to Santa Martha), after having spent 40 days in federal custody through the arraignment procedure.

This means that from now on the comrades are facing two criminal proceedings; one under local jurisdiction for the offenses of attacks to public peace and aggravated damages (attack on a Nissan dealership), for which they have no right to bail, and a federal process for the offense of damage to others’ property (attack on the Secretariat of Communications and Transport).

The comrades are well, and were able to mention that they were not beaten during the transfer.

The next hearing of the local proceeding is set for May 19th, while the federal hearing’s date will be determined this coming Sunday (18/5).

Once again we call for solidarity with comrades Amélie, Fallon and Carlos, who are kidnapped by the Mexican State since January 5th (5e).

The State/Capital is the only terrorist!
Neither guilty nor innocent!
Freedom for all!

You may write to the anarchist prisoners to the following addresses:

Amélie Trudeau / Fallon Rouiller
Centro Femenil de Reinserción Social Santa Martha Acatitla
Calzada Ermita, Iztapalapa No 4037, Colonia Santa Martha Acatitla
Delegación Iztapalapa, C.P. 09560, Ciudad de México, D.F.
México

Carlos López Marín
Reclusorio Preventivo Oriente
Calle Reforma #50, Col. San Lorenzo Tezonco
Delegación Iztapalapa, C.P. 09800, Ciudad de México, D.F.
México

Mexico, 5E : two letters by Carlos

 No Responses »
May 242014
 

From abajolosmuros, translated by Act for freedom now!

Daydreaming

Today while waiting for roll call by my jailer I set to enjoy a bar of dark chocolate.

As the puppet-screw carried out his routine I closed my eyes and began to daydream; I was able to go out for a moment from this reality and imagined myself light and free, strong and determined, my chest filled with love and desire for a new world organized differently, functional for all regardless of gender or the geographic area where we happened to be born and where a barrier of concrete or wire does not interfere with human brotherhood or restrict free movement of individuals from one place to another. A world of people autonomous and free, horizontally, who do not relate competitively but according to basic and fundamental principles such as mutual aid and solidarity.

I imagined a place where a smile is worth more than a fucking chance of “progress” (advance of the few and receding of many)where individuals are all able to take control of their lives and have the ability to organize with their equals to form social bonds without power structures.

I imagined a world where I can walk hand in hand with my little daughter without fear of her being stolen by the police or violated as a result of a programme of ‘social peace’ by some petty politician. A place where everyone would roar with laughter at the very thought of being coerced and manipulated by any authority imposed by a handful of beings with certain “airs” of class superiority. I opened my eyes somewhat nauseated by the chocolate, to hear the voice of the duty screw calling my name and I quickly came back to reality, to that repulsive apparatus of exclusion and isolation called jail. And then I thought that to have the possibility of making this beautiful utopia become reality it is not enough to desire it, think it and write it, but to act, here and now, starting from myself and not wait for the ‘right’ moment …start the destruction.

With much affection for the comrades of CNA, Mexico, for their 10 years of struggle.

¡Viva la Anarquía!

Mexico, 5E: Anarchist comrade Carlos “Chivo” Lòpez writes on his situation as a prisoner

 No Responses »
May 242014
 

Greetings, comrades!
I’m writing this letter driven by a strong need to communicate with the comrades outside. I’m convinced of the importance of being updated on all the episodes of struggle against what we normally call ‘the enemy’, that is the State and capital, from their miserable institutions to their fascist methods of control.

Anti-prison struggle is important and it is precisely for this reason that I feel the need to talk about my situation as an anarchist prisoner, while making it clear a priori that I have never tried to pass myself off as a victim because of what I’m going through, because as I have said (or written) in the past: I don’t believe in nor do I accept concepts of guilt or innocence in relation to the crimes I’m accused of, and I consider myself an anarchist with his insurrectional and revolutionary projectuality, an anarchist kidnapped by the State (and not the ‘victim’ of a kidnapping, as I read in a communiqué), and the reason why I want to talk about my condition in prison is only to publicly denounce some aspects of the way this disgusting institution functions. ‘If you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist’, and within my limited possibilities, to make my denunciation under censorship is part of my anti-prison struggle.

About a month ago (mid-March), while I was still detained in a temporary cell, the first foul deed took place. At around 7pm I was with a cellmate, then all of a sudden a shady guy, whom I certainly didn’t know, came over and started provoking me by insulting me and barging into me; a common event in prison is to beat one another up when one’s ‘reputation’ (which I think it’s a curse) is at stake, but due to the harsh words and the stress of imprisonment I fell into the trap.

After an exchange of blows, two guards appeared as if by magic (it is rare that police turn up in the corridor of the cells) and caught us fighting. Normally they tend to calm tempers with slaps and punches in order to subdue those engaged in a fight, and so they did with me and the massive guy I was fighting with (it’s great impotence not being able to defend oneself against these fucking shit cops because one ends up facing another trial for assaulting the bitch authority), and I thought it would end there, but it was not to be.

After humiliating us in front of the other prisoners present, they pushed us up the stairs; all of a sudden I no longer saw my initial aggressor, and I was the only one being taken away. So far I haven’t heard anything about him. When we got into an office, they beat me again; I couldn’t take any more and started shouting insults at them, ready to pass to physical insult, but they didn’t give me the chance because they were hitting me so hard.

I don’t remember how we got there, but I was taken into a dark room. Before we got there they stripped me and gave me a bottle of water, then they beat me again (I will never forget them) and left me there.

It was a cold night, they had taken all my clothes away, the floor was wet, I had been badly beaten all over my body and the room was completely dark. You can imagine what a night that was…

I was scared, angry and felt helpless. Allow me to call it physical and psychological torture.

I had never been afraid of the dark till that night; about 10 hours looking (and not seeing) all around and waiting for something to happen, till dawn broke and I was taken out of there. Obviously by other jailers.

I was taken to the cell and warned not to say anything about what had happened, and when I was in the cell I chose not to speak to anyone, not because of their warning but because I was still in shock.

By chance, that very day I was transferred to the extermination centre called Reclusorio Oriente, and during the night I entered the C.O.C. (Centre of Observation and Classification), whose 150 prisoners had been welcomed with the usual ‘psychological terror’.

I was expecting some other surprise at the C.O.C. Almost immediately we were called for the well-known ‘fajina’, which is cleaning the building, or allegedly so, in fact it is a pretext for extortion. In giving us directions, they said ‘al chile’ (an expression used a lot here). Who is going to go against it and pay $ 2,500 pesos not to do the fajina? This so that each one would take their responsibilities and pay up; some accepted their request. But some of us decided to face the fajina. I remember them saying: ‘you’d better pay, guerriero, you need money, don’t do anything stupid, otherwise we’ll have them beat you up.’

On that first day I did the fajina, which is an almost inhuman ‘exercise’ aimed at breaking your body so that you are forced to pay, a gorilla behind you all the time demanding that you be quick and hitting you if you don’t comply. This happens twice a day, about 3 hours of torture.

The next day they said again: ‘the best punches are for you’. After half an hour of fajina, while I was doing a sort of ‘carritos’, keeling down and cleaning the floor with a wet cloth at high speed, I fell then I was pulled up from the back of my trousers.

I have some problems with my back, so I can’t move fast. The pain was too much and I remember turning round to see my aggressor (a prisoner sheep who works for those of the fajina) and I wanted to retaliate, but again I couldn’t fight back because only two days had passed since the beating in the dark room, and with my back pain that was not the case.

As I had to restrain myself I went to the one in charge of the fajina, who said ‘if you can’t make it, then pay up’. That’s how I fell into this extortion.

I had to call someone who paid in $ 2,000 pesos for me. While I was speaking with this person I couldn’t help crying because of my feeling of impotence and the pain, but I never gave them the pleasure doing it during these disgusting fajina.
I’ll stop for a moment to point out that in spite of everything I don’t consider myself a victim. Insulted, yes, because they tried to trample on my dignity.

As a ‘coincidence’, two weeks later my mother was refused a visit, the only visit I got, on the pretext of some identification problems at the C.O.C.

The bastards ‘search’ you and steal money and phone cards. I didn’t have any money but they took my phone card along with my diary with my telephone numbers. I was in isolation for these two weeks, a strange isolation. I could only make one telephone call to ask for money …

I never thought of complaining to the ‘authorities’ of the institution, given that they are all part of the same gang of snakes in total complicity. Even less did I consider appealing to ‘human rights’ because their rights are a convenience I don’t believe in.

As for the question of extortion, I want to clarify: when I say extortion I mean pressure exercised by someone on someone else in order to obtain results, even against your will, which for a given reason is beyond your control; I don’t mean ‘extortion’ in the sense of someone wanting money from you and you give in out of fear of being beaten.

And a person very dear to me once said: ‘cya, don’t give them any money’, as if I had a choice or it was for a different kind of extortion. That’s not what he meant, but I understand some people can get that idea.

As far as concerns extortion in this context, prison and anti-prison struggle, I say that here they make you pay for anything, in reality for everything and this seems strange to me and it worries me that nobody says anything. And I know that what I’m saying here doesn’t change anything, but I don’t intend to be one of this flock of sheep.

They make you pay for using the toilet (the cell toilet is not enough for all the prisoners locked up in a small cell), for using tap water, which is much needed in the cells, drafting a request list (believe me, only for getting your list through), going to court, seeing your lawyer, cashing your cheque, and apart from the use of the table, for going downstairs on visiting day, getting out of the cell (they call it desapando); in the common cells they seize the locks, to be able to go from the cell to the dormitory, they charge (entrance, kitchen and common cell), for stuff like brooms, soap, bins, cloths and I don’t know what else.
This is a business!

And be careful! If you refuse to pay you come up against a heavy hand.

I can’t avoid mentioning the lay people, who, like the white lice, bedbugs and cockroaches, are part of the prison! They hit hard.

Another aspect I don’t like, actually no one does, is overcrowding. Arrivals and the common cells are very small, at least in my experience when I arrived in a tiny cell about 3 x 2,5 metres, we were about 23 prisoners when I was taken to the temporary cell we were about 23 prisoners, and in the common cell there were 17 of us.

It’s very uncomfortable and also dangerous for your health the way you sleep, if you sleep, particularly for the new ones, they sleep on planks placed over the toilet.

Overcrowding in Mexican jails is worrying, at least I can see that at Oriente.
And even if there are so many of us, nothing ever happens. Here the methods of domestication are remarkable, as in the case of religion, it’s unbelievable how many people say ‘maybe we are here by the will of God, this is a sign and we must respect his will’; they sing and pray and hope to get out soon.
When they know I’m an atheist and I think they seem ignorant and blinded by dogma, they keep away from me or start asking all kinds of questions, but that’s another story.

Another way of keeping prisoners passive is drugs. I’ve always thought that each one is free to choose how to live their own life, to take or not take drugs, and which drugs, but I’ve also maintained that their use is often a barrier that prevents the individual from carrying on his revolutionary goals, deviating him into a lethargic state of artificial happiness; especially with so-called heavy drugs. This along with everything else.

Prison denigrates the prisoner, humiliates him, tramples him and tries to kill his dignity, turning him into human waste without any will, servile and obedient; assigning the role of ‘sheep or snitch’ to those who are faithful to the system, crushing, isolating and punishing those who don’t follow its idiotic rules and disobey its terroristic practices.

So I declare myself an anarchist prisoner in struggle against prison. We look power in the face from inside and push to preserve our identity as people who feel a love for freedom, our dignity and to defend what we are, it is necessary to liberate our wildest impulses and in the face of such humiliation it becomes necessary to go right to the most destructive of our being.

I consider myself a free person, also inside prison, and so it will be even while they try to destroy my individuality; their methods of control and domination will never succeed in piercing my black heart, as long there is the solidarity of free comrades towards prisoners in the clutches of whatever prison, whatever extermination centre and every institute of subordination.

Prison tactics of terror and fear cannot stop this hurricane of creative passion, constructive passion and destructive passion, this liberatory project; and even if confronting its authority leads to a result of greater repression, here no one falters, no one takes a step back against the hated enemy.

The prison system wants us to believe that its violence against us is something normal, it wants us to get used to it and think this is what prison must be; personally I don’t let myself be domesticated, I don’t fear retaliations, I’m not one of those who claim they are enemies of the State and at the same time try to make their lives ‘normal’ and smooth, this doesn’t convince me. I’m not one of those who turns the other cheek when they are struck, I am not like those who are waiting for ‘conditions to be right to act’, no!

On the contrary I think that their violence must be sent back twice over, an eye for an eye, to their violence our antagonistic violence, acting without waiting for the times to be ripe because often this happens too late, responding to a flame with a raging fire.
I haven’t finished writing everything, but…

Down with the prison walls!
Fire to the prisons!
For anarchy!

Carlos ‘Chivo’,
Oriente prison.

ps. While the man strutted and he was a god, an ‘ idiot came upon him. The techniques were elevated to the supreme rank, and a time ispallate on the throne threw chains on their minds that they had created.”Edgar Allan Poe

[Translated from Italian by act for freedom now]

Solidarity with the 5E3

 No Responses »
May 122014
 

Updates on the situation of Amelie, Carlos, and Fallon can be found on SabotageMedia (En/Fr/Esp), and Fuego a las Carcelas (Esp), and Cruz Negra Anarquista Mexico (Esp)

(…) Perhaps the words of Fallon, Amélie, and Carlos will inspire you to build friendships based on trust and affinity, to have each others’ backs, and to translate your own rage against the world of prisons and police and borders into actions. As Carlos “El Chivo” wrote, “I know that anarchist solidarity is strong like an oak tree, and that always goes farther than simple words.” And as anarchists everywhere never cease to remind us: it’s easy to attack.

Somewhere between Mexico City and Montréal, March 2014.


Letters from Insurgent Comrades Imprisoned in Mexico

English | Size: Letter (8.5×11″) | Format: PDF

Cartas de companeros anarquistas apresados en Mexico

Spanish | Size: Letter (8.5×11″) | Format: PDF

In response to “Dear comrades in the streets”

 No Responses »
May 122014
 

Dear comrades,

Why do you insist on organizing within or in parallel of larger demos, or given symbolic dates? Moments when not only do you know the attacks from police will come because the whole repressive apparatus will be organized, coordinated, deployed and empowered by their laws and technology, but where you will also be reminded to watch your backs for the hostile masses in the street (have you not seen yet, the masses ready to trample you under their fear?), the whole amalgam of leftists who want to maintain and manage domination alternatively, the snitches, and the paciflics* as we call them in Montreal, already setting yourself up in a kettle between cops and citizens, more so than on a normal day.

And isn’t it exactly this you seek when you speak of confrontation? Would it not be to confront and break with normality, the normality of wake, work, shit, sleep, crossed with a few fetichized days of protest? Would it not be to transcend the regularizing militant calendar of our expected moments of action? Comrades, the element of surprise is still a fierce ally.

Or is it more of a group therapy you search? To be with others, to comfort yourselves as you are not alone, and “to focus more on care, support, emotional openness”. If so then you can revel in the demo as it is nothing more than that, a group therapy within this mass alienation we call society.

We hope that you care and support each other everyday. We hope that everyday you become stronger in your embrace with loved ones, those whose hands you grasp, trusting them with your life. The demo is as much a place to find people who will care for you as is a nightclub.

Comrades, we would like to think that you too have the blazing desire, not to take the streets back, but to make them unusable. The streets are not ours, they never were and never will be, and we do not want them to be, they are part of this world of concrete and cement which keeps us locked up, keeps us from having our feet in the earth, and to see beyond. Any day, anywhere there are streets, a few loved ones suffice to find the cracks in the street from where to pull out pieces to throw back to those it belongs to.

Comrades, we wish to embrace, our fists grasping the streets burning with desire, any rotten day of misery that domination forces upon us.

*“paci” for pacifist and “flics” for cops. Used to name those hostile to, who attack, and/or try to arrest others that use confrontational tactics.

*********

Dear comrades in the streets

We organized an autonomous contingent for the Montreal COBP demo on March 15th this year. More than 40 of us met up nearby to the main demo, and had our own small demo that went for around half an hour. The police were not expecting us, and we were neither attacked nor kettled before we decided to disperse ourselves. We wrote a flyer explaining why we had organized the contingent, and encouraging others to do the same for the upcoming May 1st anti-capitalist demo. We planned to hand out this flyer to people who had gathered for the main demo, but the kettles began before we arrived. We hope things can go differently next time. No justice, no peace, see you in the streets!

The flyer:

Dear comrades in the streets,

This year for March 15th we have self-organized into an autonomous contingent within the larger demo. We would like to explain why we have done this, and encourage you to do the same for future demos, especially May 1st.

We initiated this contingent because we want to experiment with methods of more collective, organized participation in demos. We want to communicate more with each other before the demo, while it is going on, and afterwards. We want to have more capacity to take care of one another and to protect ourselves from the attacks by the police that we know will come.

If we want to engage with confrontational demos, we must organize ourselves and relate to one another in ways that allow us to work through the trauma and fear that grow out of our encounters with the police. We must figure out what it looks like in practice to focus more on care, support, emotional openness and reflexivity in our mobilization and organizing for confrontational demos. We think contingents might be a way to do this.

By forming into contingents outside of the main meetup location for the demo, such as in our neighborhoods, we decentralize the demo formation process and make it harder for the police to disrupt us before we have even started. By decentralizing some of the decision-making capacities of the demo into autonomously organized contingents, we make it harder to disperse the demo.

Finally, and most importantly, by organizing to support one another, we hope to provide a basis for more people to feel able to participate in confrontational demos, and more confidence for all of us to be combative in all the ways that we know are necessary.
We started this contingent by calling up our friends who we thought might want to go to this demo with us. We met up a few times and talked a whole lot. Think that sounds fun? We encourage everyone to find their friends and neighbors and organize contingents for May 1st!

Festival of Anarchy

 No Responses »
May 122014
 

taken from anarchistbookfair.ca

SCHEDULE: FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY EVENTS

a) MAY 1, 6pm: Anti-Capitalist MayDay
b) MAY 1, 8pm: Screening: Wal-Town The Film
c) MAY 1: MayDay Street Dance Party
d) MAY 3, 12-6pm: Post-Mayday Care Day
e) MAY 3-31: Occuprint Exhibition at Ste-Emilie
f) MAY 4, 12-5pm: À qui la ville? Montreal Organizing Assembly against Gentrification
g) MAY 8, 6pm: Radical Film Night
h) MAY 10, 11am: Mothers Against Borders Brunch
i) MAY 15, 7pm: Book Launch: Le Cirque Diabolique
j) MAY 15, 7:30pm: Surrealism in Cinema #1
k) MAY 18, 1pm: Anti-Civilization Day
l) MAY 22, 6pm: Defending the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Extraction
m) MAY 22, 9pm: ANARCHIST CABARET
n) MAY 23, 5-9pm: OPENING OF ART & ANARCHY
o) MAY 24-25, 10am-5pm: MONTREAL ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
p) MAY 23, 8pm: Glamarchist Lookfair: Queer Dance Party
q) MAY 24, 6pm: DIRA Anarchist Library BBQ
r) MAY 24, 6-10pm: Annual Anarchist People of Colour (APOC) Potluck
s) MAY 26, 6:30pm: Race politics beyond the official white/black paradigm
t) MAY 27, 9pm: Breakfast for Anarchists Book Launch
u) MAY 29-JUNE 1: Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal: Session on the Canadian Mining Industry
v) JUNE 1-15: Anti-Deportation Days
w) JUNE 2-3: Montreal International Theatre Festival
x) JUNE 5, 6-8pm: Anarchist theatre of the Belle Époque
y) JUNE 7, 2pm: Demonstration: Stop Deportations! Status For All!
z) MAY & JUNE: Trauma Support Group: Supporting Each Other When There Is No “Post” Trauma

More detailed information below.

((( a )))

Anti-Capitalist MayDay
May 1st, 2014, 6pm SHARP
Parc des Faubourgs, corner of de Lorimier and Ontario (métro Papineau ou Frontenac)

Capitalism destroys our lives, let’s destroy capitalism!
Organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence
info: www.clac-montreal.net
—–

((( b )))

Screening: Wal-Town The Film
Thursday, May 1, 8pm
JA de Seve Cinema, 1400 de Maisonneuve West (métro Guy-Concordia)

Join us for the 10 year anniversary of the Wal-Town project & to mark May Day with a
film about resisting labour exploitation at Wal-Mart.
Presented by Cinema Politica and the Concordia Documentary Centre
info: www.cinemapolitica.org/screening/concordia/wal-town-film
—–

((( c )))

MayDay Street Dance Party
Thursday, May 1
(It’s word of mouth so ask your buds and tell only your buds!)
(The time and place from last year had changed!)

Bring your masks – Get dressed up!
info: http://vimeo.com/92102995 & www.facebook.com/events/494109324049097
—–

((( d ))))

Post-Mayday Care Day
Saturday, May 3, 12-6pm
Sainte Emilie Skillshare, 3942 Rue Sainte Emilie

Music-Food-Drinks-Group Support-Quiet Space
info: http://steemilieskillshare.org
—–

((( e )))

Occuprint Exhibition at Ste-Emilie
May 3 to May 31, opening hours: www.facebook.com/SteEmilieSkillshare/info
Ste-Emilie Skillshare, 3942 rue Ste. Emilie, occupied Kanienkehaka territory

A presentation of posters designed and printed by members of the Occuprint
collective and archive in Brooklyn, NY during the first year of the Occupy movement.
info: http://steemilieskillshare.org/
—–

((( f )))

À qui la ville? Montreal Organizing Assembly against Gentrification
Sunday, May 4, 12pm-5pm
CEDA, 2515, rue Delisle (métro Lionel-Groulx)

Workshop and discussion on possible strategies to confront gentrification.
Organized by À qui la ville.
Info: www.aquilaville.net
—–

((( g )))

Radical Film Night
Thursday, May 8, 6pm
L’Alizé, 900, rue Ontario est (métro Berri-UQAM)

From the combative streets of Madrid to self managed farms in Quebec, to indigenous blockades in New Brunswick, radical media makers focus in on the hotspots of resistance and flip the mainstream media narrative on its head.
Co-presented by Submedia.tv and Medi@ Libre
info: www.submedia.tv or www.grip-uqam.org/M@L
—–

((( h )))

Mothers Against Borders Brunch
Saturday, May 10, 11am
Lorne Centre, 2390 Ryde St. (métro Charlevoix)

On the eve of Mothers’ Day, the Justice for Ivonne Committee is hosting a brunch to celebrate the struggle of Ivonne Hernandez and other courageous mothers who have crossed and defied borders for their children.
Organized by the Justice for Ivonne Committee
info: www.justicepourivonne.org
—–

((( i )))

Book Launch: Le Cirque Diabolique
Thursday, May 15, 7pm
Bar Populaire, 6584, boul. St-Laurent (métro Beaubien)

Organized by les Éditions Bruno Massé and Sabotart
info: www.brunomasse.com
—–

((( j )))

Surrealism in Cinema #1
Thursday, May 15, 7:30pm
DIRA, 2035 St-Laurent, between Sherbrooke and Ontario (métro St-Laurent)

A monthly series about surrealism and film.
info: potlatch@cheerful.com
—–

((( k )))

Anti-Civilization Day
Sunday, May 18, 1pm
La Déferle, 1407, rue Valois

Workshops, speakers, films screening and the launch of La Mauvaise Herbe
info: layla.miltsov.org, anarchieverte.ch40s.net/la-mauvaise-herbe or contrelacivilisation.anarkhia.org
—–

((( l )))

Defending the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Extraction
Thursday, May 22, 6pm
Native Friendship Centre of Montreal, 2001 Boul. Saint Laurent (métro St-Laurent)

Free community meal and presentation by Mel Bazil (indigenous Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en organizer, sovereigntist, and anarchist). This event is a part of the Under The Weather: Climate Change Research and Justice Lecture Series at CKUT 90.3 FM, in collaboration with the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, Climate Justice Montreal, QPIRG Concordia, the Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective, Solidarity Across Borders and No One Is Illegal Montreal.
info: info: undertheweather.ckut.ca
—–

((( m )))

Anarchist Cabaret

Thursday, May 22; doors at 8:30pm; show at 9:30pm
at L’Alizé, 900 rue Ontario East (métro Berri-UQAM)

On stage: ShowMe * Stella Jetté * Gumboots performance * Viva Bertaga * fire performance by Bobette * Caytee Lush (www.whatthefuckamidoinghere.com)
$5 or pay-what-you-can – accessible to wheelchairs
info: www.anarchistbookfair.ca/anarchistcabaret2014
—–

((( n )))

Opening/Vernissage of Art & Anarchy

Friday, May 23, from 5pm until 9pm
At the Centre d’éducation populaire de la Petite-Bourgogne et de St-Henri (CEDA)
3rd floor, 2515 rue Delisle (métro Lionel-Groulx)

Music – Food & Snacks – Performances. Meet the contributing artists and get a first look at this year’s Art & Anarchy exhibition.
info: www.anarchistbookfair.ca/art-anarchy-openingvernissage-may-23
—–

((( o )))

Montreal Anarchist Bookfair 2014

Two days: Saturday, May 24 & Sunday, May 25
10am-5pm on both days
Centre Culturel Georges-Vanier (CCGV), 2450 rue Workman & Centre d’éducation populaire de la Petite-Bourgogne et de St-Henri (CEDA), 2515 rue Delisle
A short walk from Lionel-Groulx metro.

No gods, no masters, no bosses, no borders.
FREE. Welcome to all!
For anarchists, and people curious about anarchism.

-> Participants from all over Quebec and North America, booksellers and vendors, workshops, films, discussions, kids activities, art exhibits and more!
-> Part of the month-long Festival of Anarchy held throughout May & June 2014 at venues and locations all over the island of Montreal
-> Workshops & Presentations: www.anarchistbookfair.ca/workshops-and-presentations-2014
info: www.anarchistbookfair.ca
—–

((( p )))

Glamarchist Lookfair
Friday May 23rd, doors at 8pm
Il Motore, 179 Jean-Talon Ouest (métro Parc ou de Castelnau)

Queer Between the Covers presents the annual fundraiser / queer dance party /
show. Bands! DJs! Glamarchy Forever! New night, same jam.
info: www.queerbetweenthecovers.org
—–

((( q )))

DIRA Anarchist Library BBQ
Saturday, May 24, 6pm
DIRA Anarchist Library (backyard), 2035 St-Laurent, between Sherbrooke & Ontario (métro St-Laurent)

DIRA’s annual post-Anarchist Bookfair BBQ, this year with a Eric Duhaime piñata.
info: bibliodira.org
—–

((( r )))

Annual Anarchist People of Colour (APOC) Potluck
Saturday, May 24, 6pm-10pm
Ste-Emilie Skillshare, 3942 rue Ste-Emilie

A closed potluck for anarchists who self-identify as POC (people of colour), Indigenous,
racialized persons, black, brown, and/or non-white, or those interested in learning
more about anarchy/anarchism. Our hope is to create a safe space to discuss
anarchist issues and ideas as they apply to our lives and experience, as well as
talk about our experience as racialized people in the anarchist scene.
info: http://steemilieskillshare.org/
—–

((( s )))

Learning from an unimportant minority: Race politics beyond the official white/black paradigm
Monday, May 26, 6:30pm
QPIRG Concordia, 1500 de Maisonneuve West, suite 204 (métro Guy-Concordia)

Race is all around us, as one of the main structures of capitalist society. Yet, how we talk about it and even how we think about it is tightly policed. Everything about race is artificially distorted as a White/Black paradigm. Instead, we need to understand the imposed racial reality from many different angles of radical vision. A presentation by J. Sakai.
info: www.kersplebedeb.com
—–

((( t )))

Breakfast for Anarchists Book Launch
Tuesday, May 27, 9pm
Casa del popolo, 4873 boulevard St-Laurent

Book launch with author Norman Nawrocki and his band Crocodile. Free.
info: sabotart@riseup.net
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((( u )))

Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal: Session on the Canadian Mining Industry
May 29 to June 1st
CEDA, 2515, rue Delisle (métro Lionel-Groulx)

A large coalition of organizations from Quebec, Canada and overseas is working to create a session of the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) on the Canadian Mining Industry for 2014-2016. The question we are asking is: why are today’s extractive industries a major cause of human rights abuses and environmental damages?
info: www.tppcanada.org
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((( v )))

Anti-Deportation Days: Two weeks of events, activities and actions demanding Status For All!
June 1-15
Montreal

This year, the Status For All coalition is coordinating two weeks of activities in opposition to deportations, detentions and double punishment, and in support of a Solidarity City and the regularization of all non-status migrants. Anti-Deportation Days is organized and coordinated by the Status For All Coalition (comprised of Mexicians United for Regularization, Solidarity Across Borders and No One Is Illegal-Montreal, with the support of Dignidad Migrante and the Immigrant Workers Center).
info: www.StatusForAll.org
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((( w )))

Montreal International Theatre Festival
June 2 & 3, 7:30pm
La Sala Rossa, 4848 boulevard St-Laurent

The world’s biggest and only international anarchist theatre festival. Two nights of amazing theatre, totally inexpensive.
info: www.anarchistetheatrefestival.com
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((( x )))

Anarchist theatre of the Belle Époque and pacifist women during the 1st World War
Thursday, June 5, 6-8pm
Bar Populaire, 6584, boulevard St-Laurent

The Montreal International Theatre Festival and the La Balancelle theatre troupe present an evening on anarchist theatre during the Belle Époque and pacifist women during the 1st World War.
info: www.anarchistetheatrefestival.com
—–

((( y )))

Demonstration: Stop Deportations! Status For All!
Saturday, June 7, 2pm
Gathering/Starting Point: Bethune Square
(Guy & DeMaisonneuve West, métro Guy-Concordia)

We march together to demand an end to deportations and detentions, and we denounce the double punishment of migrants with criminal records. We demand Status for All, and organize for a “Solidarity City” for all residents of Montreal. Organized by the Status For All Coalition (Mexicans United for Regularization, Solidarity Across Borders and No One Is Illegal, with the support of Dignidad Migrante and the Immigrant Workers Center).
Info: www.StatusForAll.org
—–

((( z )))

Trauma Support Group: Supporting Each Other When There Is No “Post” Trauma
May & June
Weekly Meetings TBA based on preferred time

Co-facilitated by Parneet, a radical counselling therapist, and Noah, an atypical
support worker & workshop nerd, this group is designed to support those who have
faced – and continue to face – police/state oppression and other forms of trauma.
info: radicalsafespaces@gmail.com
—–

THE FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY – MAY 1st – JUNE 15th, 2014 – MONTREAL
info: www.anarchistbookfair.ca

Inflammable – site launch

 No Responses »
May 122014
 

Inflammable

This space is born from the need for hosting and spreading our passed and future publications, but also to support propaganda initiatives which we feel affinity to.

You will find here the irregularly published Inflammable in which we compile different texts, reports, analyses, communiques, letters, etc. circulating mostly in Montreal and surrounding areas. In the distro section you will also find publications from other projects in the area which we will share to help spread widely.

We invite you to send us your publications, if we like them we’ll add them to our distro.

We’re currently working on the third Inflammable.

Rail Lines Blocked in Solidarity with Indigenous Communities in Conflict with the State

 No Responses »
Apr 212014
 

From SabotageMedia

On the morning of April 8th, 8 train lines running through Montreal were blocked by disrupting the rail signals.

This action was done in response to ongoing efforts of colonization and repression by the state against indigenous communities across Turtle Island. Colonization and its enforcers are responsible for the missing and murdered indigenous women who have lost their lives as a result of this racist, imperialist society. This action was done in solidarity with recent and ongoing efforts of different communities to honor the lives of these women and to disable the capacity of their assassins.

Rebels, indigenous folk and workers alike have targeted the train lines as an apt means for disrupting the flow of capital and these systems of domination. Historically and presently the railways have acted as a necessary toll for imperialism and colonization.

CN has chosen to build its infrastructure across indigenous territory as another act of stealing land from autonomous communities.

As anarchists we are invested in contributing to an active disruption of domination and state power.

Strength and love to those facing ongoing repression for their actions, and to the families and loved ones of those lost in this war.

Some anarchists

Mexico: Two letters from Mario López “Tripa”

 No Responses »
Apr 212014
 

sabotagemedia receives these translations from Spanish

First Public Letter

You are waiting for the revolution! Very well! My own began along time ago! When you are ready — God, what an endless wait! — it won’t nauseate me to go along the road awhile with you!
But when you stop, I will continue on my mad and triumphant march toward the great and sublime conquest of Nothing!
Every society you build will have its fringes, and on the fringes of every society, heroic and restless vagabonds will wander, with their wild and virgin thoughts, only able to live by preparing ever new and terrible outbreaks of rebellion!
I shall be among them!

-RENZO NOVATORE, MY ICONOCLAST INDIVIDUALISM

Comrades, it’s been a long time I haven’t communicated nothing public, apart from a few things I wrote on the development of the juridical process against me for attacks to the public peace; this time, I’m not communicating to tell you something about this process or about juridical issues that don’t matter much to me right now and in reality I didn’t care much about to begin with. This time I’m writing to re-declare myself – again – and position myself about what’s going on in México, in respect to the current repressive attack that the Mexican State is articulating and beginning to unleash, it’s clearly well learned, from its Italian and Chilean buddies; because in the end it is nothing else than a pitoresque reproduction of the Marini style set-up or the « caso bombas », but made in Mexico; a set-up that can only be considered as an immediate response of the enemy in front of the pressure exerted by groups and anarchists individualists (N1) and libertarians – night and day, public or covert –, before the dangerousness of such ideas for the social good, and it must not be taken in a mediated sense that would make us victims in front of a system which we decided to fight against, by any means or through any organizing model. A setup with apparent leaders, a hierarchical organizational structure and an organized criminal structure with terrorist objectives in which even a judicial team was tasked to take us out of jail when that would happen; a structure that bears more similarities with any group of narco-traffickers, guerrilla or marxist organization of any ideology (Leninist, Maoist, Marquista, Stalinist, etc..) than the way we anarchists conceive organization; organization of any manner, calling itself public or closed, especially when its labeled as informal. A set-up where the principal promoters of anarchist action are comrades from other countries that came to Mexico for X motive and following what the bastards from the Attorney General’s office say, that they are the funding source of the struggle; a set-up where they seek not only to harm a specific sector of the anarchist movement but various sectors of local anarchism; a police set-up where the mass media of the State/Capital are playing an important role in constructing. But well, what the State/Capital could do or think in this issue is not my business, first because I don’t think like power, and precisely because I’m not a person of power and authority. My mind cannot think in this authoritarian way and I prefer not wasting time in worrying about how and what the enemy is thinking about, or otherwise wasting time in correcting the image it conceives of us with the objective of lowering the severity of our charges or punishment. Everything said in this letter is addressed to the comrades in the struggle, mainly those who are libertarians and with anarchist affinities.

Well, as it is already known, I was arrested again on January 20th while leaving the magistrate’s court on James Sullivan avenue in Mexico City, where each Monday I had to sign the register following the requirements of the conditional release. While leaving the building, a tall man stopped me, unsure of himself, asked me if I was the right person, and told me that he had to bring me under an order to appear he had against me. I will tell you the complete story later, in a calmer mood, because I find it quite interesting, mainly because of the way those PGR bastards behave.

Finally, while being at the PGR agency in Camarones and after hours of bothering me, interrogating, bluffing and trying to be friendly interrogators, the chief of the Ministerial Federal, a certain comandante Silva, notified me that they had an order against me to appear in front of the Federal Public Ministry as a supposed witness, and a warrant for the crime of manufacturing explosives without a permit, which is a violation of the Law on Firearms and explosives, to be used exclusively by the army. This was an order that was expedited by a federal judge of the sixth district, since November 2013. Moreover, they would take me to the Oriente prison to comply with the order. When my lawyer came – private – they brought me in front of that nun – I would call her witch, but witches have my total respect – that Public Ministry told me that she ordered to bring me because I was a suspect in a federal investigation for terrorism and organized crime, in the juridical case of the comrades of Canada and Carlos Chivo ; she showed us the record and the part in which I’m linked directly with the other suspects, including with the anarchist comrade of insurrectional affinity Carlos “el Chivo”, and it was at that moment when we could see how their set-up is being structured. At the end of the session they took a mobile phone I was carrying, a pair of USB keys and a cable to charge an Mp3 player, a booklet on anarchist tension written by A.M. Bonanno, a booklet from Costantino C. on the Anarchist Project in the Post Industrial era (which is too bad because it was quite beautiful) and the Prison and its world booklet written by Massimo Passamani (I mention it because the Ministerials and the MP showed a lot of excitement about what I was mysteriously carrying in my backpack) and a few unimportant papers. They bothered me a little bit more and then they transferred me to the Oriente prison and brought me in front of the judge. The next day the lawyers of the GASPA arrived and argued that the accusations were not valid, for being founded on evidence that had not been certified because they had been brought in from my other prosecution for attacks against public peace, of which I didn’t have a judgment yet, so the proofs were not valid. The judge had two options: the first was to free me after 6 days to the request of my lawyer at the end of constitutional term, and the other was giving me a cheap bail – cheap when compared with the other bail I had to pay previously and others that they gave to other comrades -. And when asked by my lawyer on what would I’d like to do, I freely chose to pay the bail, but not to give more money to the State (in reference to criticism that was made when we were detained in the Chilean embassy incident) or because of fear, but because I, freely and without the tips of anyone, took the decision that the moment I put one foot in the street I would runaway. Everything was clearer than ever to me, the harassment and repression against me from the State and the PGR.

Well now, and by my own decision, I decided to validate my judicial rupture (or anarchist-anti-judicialism as it is usually labeled), my negation to continue – and to collaborate – in this judicial circus against me and other comrades, because from the point of view of my individuality, it is the most congruent option with my discourse, ideas and way of conceiving life that I found, which is anarchy. There’s nothing more, now we know that the orders of search and arrest targeting me circulated because I ran away from justice in the trial for: attacks to public peace, the federal crime of manufacture of explosives, and the federal investigation against me for terrorism and organized delinquency, and also outrages to the authority for what happed at the Chilean embassy last year. Dangerous, isn’t it?! Ha ha ! Dangerous are the ideas and the practices!

This is now another phase of the struggle that I decided to enter long time ago, it is a phase which is common in the life of the individual that has decided to take a path of insurrection and permanent conflict – interior and exterior – against power, a phase that can’t be reduced, and that maintains itself in struggle with all means for the destruction of the State/Capital; this other phase that for me doesn’t mean clandestinity (the fact is, I am very critical of the clandestinity position when it’s auto assumed or voluntary as a form of “struggle”) but which is rather a measure imposed by the enemy that delineates and defines new conditions to bring about anarchist struggle.

Taking advantage of space while being brief, I want to make public the harassment the police has been conducting towards me (N2) – like the time when the SSP and the PDI arrested me and let me go in 10 minutes, in a park in Mexico City when we had a public meeting to see how the situation of our jailed comrades was going, or the visits by the PGR where I was supposed to be living but in reality was the home of my sentimental partner, or the constant overt surveillance, or the search of my partner’s house where they broke the fucking fence door, etc. As well as the surveillance and harassment against my partner and her young daughter, and that if something ever happened to them, the culprit would clearly be the State/Capital; And I don’t say this to demand for their institutional protection or to make victims of ourselves, I do it to expose the situation that they are also living. Also, I take advantage of this space, to send a greeting to all of those who, behind my back, said that my comrades and I collaborated with the police so that we could get out of jail, because of the Chilean embassy incident, and even said that me and some comrades were cops… Time and the harvest of the short, medium and long term struggle will exonerate whoever is right. I, we, continue in the struggle… What about you?

That is all for the moment, I say goodbye and send a strong embrace to all! A special hug to my mother, whom I had not the opportunity to say goodbye to and who’s also been harassed like my partner.

One the one hand, there is the existent, the customs and their certainties. And what’s certain is that this social poison is dying. On the other hand is insurrection, the unknown that interrupts everyone’s life. The possible beginning of an exaggerated practice of freedom.

All support jailed anarchist comrades!
A fraternal greeting to Felicity R. Nikos Mazeotis, Pola and the little Lambros Victor. Solidarity with anarchist comrades, anti-authoritarians and libertarians on the run! Solidarity and total support to the comrades being investigated in Mexico for a terrorism and organized delincuency case! Solidarity with Amelie, Carlos and Fallon!

We are not defeated and we have no regrets!

I don’t give up, we don’t give up!

Live anarchy!

In struggle against the state, Mario Antonio López Hernandez. Tripa.

Planet Earth February 3rd, 2014

N1: Here I refer to the ongoing situation, in no instance do I attempt to use that maoist rhetoric, that the validity of our struggle and actions goes according to the enemy’s response, which is the same than to measure a supposed dangerousness that doesn’t have the same degree of dangerousness than the enemy gives us; in this way limiting anarchist theory and action to the existence of the enemy. The struggle against the State/Capital is a part (an important one) of what we conceive as anarchy. I don’t know how so many come to or have came to make use of that phrase that also appears in the commercial movie on the German RAF.

N2. I relate this to expand the repressive panorama, without desire to make a minimizing comparison of what they have been doing to other comrades, and the general harassment against anarchism in the central Mexico region. This will come to light as with respect to what is happening.

Second Public Letter

Briefly, I would like to write with respect to the week of support for incarcerated comrades in Mexico, which is supposed to happen between the 16 and the 24 of March.

First, I’d like to say that it isn’t my intention to sabotage the week in question, not at all. However, since the text made reference to me, mentioned my name, and used a quote from a public letter that I wrote from jail, I would like to establish my position on the matter.

So; the end of this call for solidarity uses a quote from a communiqué that I wrote from prison, and at the end, it’s signed with my name. Not only this, but at first glance, it appears as though (and this could be due to a poor translation into spanish) the text itself or the call for solidarity is signed with my name. This is impossible, for a number of reasons:

First: Because I don’t agree with weeks of solidarity and support for prisoners (at one time I did, but now, I don’t). This isn’t because I don’t agree with solidarity with comrades, because clearly solidarity is a principal of the ideas and practice of anarchy, and solidarity is an individual ethic that is brought into practice in our daily lives. More so because I consider the necessary support and REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDARITY (N1) with imprisoned comrades not to be a separate struggle; similar to how struggle against prisons isn’t a seperate struggle but rather is part of the struggle for the destruction of the State/Capital, an inseparable part of the struggle for freedom. So, to create a specific calendar of days that should focus on anti-prison action seems to me to be the same as obeying the revolutionary calendar of every year (the demo on the 2nd of October, the 1st of May…now also the 1st of December, etc.). This practice centers the action on only one day, and takes meaning away from actions that occur daily and that also keep imprisoned comrades in mind.

Second: Because strategically, it doesn’t work if we give the cops advance notice about actions that will occur in the future.

Third: With regards to me personally, I never have nor would call for any week of solidarity, demonstration or action as such; because this individualizes, or rather “personifies” collective actions, distracts attention from the struggle and creates icons, fictitious leaders, and ideological gurus. It’s well known that I’m against acronyms, leaders, vanguard groups, of synthesis or of past organizations (anarchist or non-anarchist) that try to mobilize people. As opposed to this, I am for self-organization and self-management of struggles, autonomy, and informal anarchist organization. I would never collaborate with the judicial circus of power that always individualizes collective revolt, with the goal of finding false leaders (as with the investigations against me for having supposedly called for who knows how many fucking things), and in this way to seek to minimize insurrection, and to center it on a single person or a small group in particular.

Either way, I really appreciate all the support.

Warm greetings.
Long live anarchy!

Mario López Hernández.
16/03/2014

N1: To understand what I am referring to when I say “Revolutionary Solidarity”, I recommend a text by Pierlone Porcu, whose exact title is ‘revolutionary solidarity’.

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