A letter of Ivan, from Villepinte prison
Below is a text by anarchist Ivan Alocco, who was arrested on June 11 and is currently imprisoned in Villepinte Prison, France.
Break the isolation! For immediate revolutionary solidarity with Ivan and all imprisoned anarchists!
–
I am writing to share some thoughts and give some news.
I would like to begin with something that illustrates well the methods of the judicial system.
A few days after my arrest, the judge who instructed the investigation, Stéphanie Lahaye, sent two cops from SDAT [the Anti-Terrorism Sub-Directorate of the Judicial Police] (including the judicial police officer “RIO 1237232” – like machines, they have numbers instead of names) to interrogate my daughter and her mother. Obeying his orders, the procedures of state justice, they tried to pressure a 12-year-old girl. After making her wait in the courtyard of the local gendarmerie barracks during her mother’s interrogation, they allegedly wanted to interrogate her alone. Evidently, her mother refused to leave her.
An ordinary, mundane procedure, a necessary act to establish the truth, according to judges and cops. A way, in my opinion, of trying to spread fear. A warning to my loved ones and to everyone, because, in the inquisitive logic of Justice, people who stay or stand by an anarchist accused of direct action are suspect and must be bothered.
This is somewhat the same logic that was used against me. When the same judicial police officer, during interrogations while I was under arrest, asked me, she reproached me for bringing my support to imprisoned anarchists, in France and in other countries. Of writing to them and occasionally sending them some money. Of course, I often wrote to numerous imprisoned compas and did my best to express my solidarity with them. Because they are anarchists and also because I am convinced of the rightness and necessity of the actions some of them are accused of.
I think solidarity, by any means necessary, with compas affected by repression is fundamental. To avoid openly solidarizing with them, for fear that repression will spread, would be to enter the game of Justice, to accept its logic. A logic that would make us retreat further and further, until we abandon, or almost abandon, the imprisoned revolutionaries.
But let us now come to the facts for which they are currently in preventive detention. Here is the list of the fires:
– January 22, 2022, an Enedis vehicle (in Paris) and an SFR vehicle (in Montreuil);
– on February 20, an Est Républicain vehicle (in Montreuil);
– on March 4, a car with diplomatic corps plates and an Aston Martin (in Paris);
– on April 24, an Enedis vehicle (in Paris);
– on June 11, a car with diplomatic corps license plates (in Paris).
As I mentioned in my first letter, I am also “témoin assisté” [a status intermediate between mere witness and accused] in another investigation, initiated by the Paris judicial police. This one focuses on 53 vehicle fires, claimed by anarchists, between 2017 and 2021. I don’t know more about this part of the case.
On this list are cars of foreign state institutions (or their top officials), in wealthy neighborhoods of Paris. Fires that must give a “so-so” image of France, in front of the diplomatic staff of its international partners. For my part (and I know I am not alone), I think that all states are directly responsible for the wars, exploitation, and repression suffered by billions of people. We may see these fires as small backfires. Waiting for better.
There are also vehicles of rich people and big companies, for example from the energy sector (such as Enedis, a subsidiary of EDF). Of corporations that, under the guise of “energy sovereignty,” cause today’s nuclear harmfulness, tomorrow’s possible nuclear disasters. There are companies that recoil at us with their propaganda of capitalist and state values (such as the newspaper l’Est Républicain) or that lock us into the digital spider web (such as SFR).
Each of these actions has been explained by a claim and I have nothing to add. For my part, I can only wholeheartedly support the practice of destructive direct action. I support the choice of the targets of these attacks, their motives and the fact of openly claiming them as contributions to the anarchist struggle against the state and the capitalist system. Same for the practice of internationalist solidarity with imprisoned anarchists, which these actions have often expressed.
About the News:
On October 5 I will go before the Judge of Liberties and Detention, who will decide whether to extend the preventive or let me out.
The new investigating judge handling my case (the previous one has changed places) is Anne Grandjean, also at the Bobigny courthouse.
My mail (incoming and outgoing) is always blocked, this since July 19. Apparently, it should unblock soon (good, one has to take into account the slowness of the judicial bureaucracy). In any case, as soon as I can receive it, I will try to respond to each person who wrote to me, whom I thank in advance.
The investigation file has been filed with the prison office, so I will be able (always taking into account the slow pace of prison bureaucracy) to know a little more about what the cops are saying.
My whole-hearted thanks go to my loved ones, to the compas of the Anarchist Bure Cross, to the Cassa Antirepressione delle Alpi Occidentali [‘Western Alps Anti-Repression Fund’] (also for their kind financial provision). And to all of you who wrote to me!
A wink to those and those who express their solidarity through acts, such as the beautiful banner in Bure and the one near Caen, the placards at the Tour de France finish line, the burning of a Vinci van in l’Hay-les-Roses, of a vehicle of the telecommunications company Cosmote, in Athens, of a telephone tower in Barcelona, and even the devastation of some telephone towers in the Gers. Thank you!
A fraternal hug to anarchist comrades and comrades locked up in prisons all over the world, especially Alfredo, who is fighting against 41 bis.
Long live anarchy!
Ivan
Villepinte, September 25, 2022
To write to me:
Ivan Alocco
n. d’écrou 46355
M. A. de Villepinte
40, avenue Vauban
93420 – Villepinte
France
[Published by: https://darknights.noblogs.org/post/2022/09/28/france-a-letter-from-ivan-from-villepinte-prison/ | Published in italian here: https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2022/09/26/una-lettera-di-ivan-dalla-prigione-di-villepinte/]