Statement by anarchist Juan Sorroche on the start of hunger strike in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito (Italy, October 25, 2022)
The English translation of the statement by anarchist comrade Juan Sorroche, imprisoned in Terni prison, on hunger strike since October 25 in solidarity with comrade Alfredo Cospito, who in turn went on hunger strike, indefinitely undertaken from the 20th of the same month, is now available. We recall that comrade Ivan Alocco, imprisoned in the French prison of Villepinte, also went on hunger strike from the 27th. Revolutionary solidarity with Alfredo Cospito, Juan Sorroche, Ivan Alocco and all imprisoned anarchists and revolutionaries.
JUAN SORROCHE FERNANDEZ FROM TERNI PRISON, HIGH SECURITY SECTION (AS2), ON HUNGER STRIKE FROM OCTOBER 25, 2022, FOR AN INDEFINITE PERIOD – IN SOLIDARITY
1ST – I DEMAND: THE DOWNGRADING FROM 41 BIS PRISON REGIME OF ANARCHIST ALFREDO COSPITO:
– Last May 5th, Alfredo Cospito was placed under the 41 bis regime and later transferred to Bancali prison (Sassari). This was done to physically prevent him from communicating and contributing to the debate among anarchists, after having already been imprisoned for 10 years in AS2 [Alta Sicurezza 2, “High Security 2” sections] and subjected several times to correspondence censorship, investigations and trials concerning his writings. The state wants to silence and annihilate him with the 41bis regime, a prison within a prison, prison of annihilation, it is a scientifically studied torture technique, period: a technique based on deprivation to induce prisoners to deny their beliefs. The 41 bis was not only designed for those accused of association with the mafia, but this imprisonment regime was also and still is used for the purpose of repression of revolutionaries and subversives. For 17 years there have been some communist revolutionaries subjected to this regime.
2ND – FOR AN ACTIVE SOLIDARITY:
– Since I do not perceive myself as isolated, I want to give continuity of solidarity and internationalist struggle because what is happening to us isn’t stand-alone cases of state revenge against us specifically as social prisoners.
I do not agree with the concept of “political prisoner”, which I believed largely outdated in the experiences of past struggles, I think it generates separation, isolation and emphasizes a separation between political and common prisoners, this separation hides behind it a feeling of superiority and contempt for the rest of the imprisoned people. I reiterate the “old” notion that we are social prisoners, all of us.
But it is a fact that in many parts of the world the social prisoners who struggle, the subversives, the revolutionaries are subject to special conditions of imprisonment because they struggle inside prisons. In Chile, Greece, Spain, Turkey, in the Zionist state of Israel, etc., remaining unrepentant even within the walls, continuing our struggles, albeit limited, and maintaining our positions of rupture with the State inside the prisons, puts us in the cross-hair of the repressive mechanisms of the State, against which we have fought and continue to fight. As it has been the case with Alfredo Cospito transferred to 41bis, a generous and unrepentant anarchist comrade who gave so much to revolutionary debate and development during the years of anarchism.
For this, I want to include myself as a prisoner in the struggle and give at the same time my revolutionary and internationalist solidarity to those who stubbornly, despite the unfavourable conditions of struggle, continue to fight. Such prisoners as those who, here in Italy who are standing trial for “devastation and looting” for fighting in the March 2020 prison uprisings. Or like the prisoners who rebelled here in Terni prison. Like those subversive, revolutionary prisoners who after so many years in prison, despite meeting the conditions for release, continue to be incarcerated, through a series of special laws, legal interpretations, and political decisions, all over the world.
Such as, for example:
in Germany Thomas Meyer, in the USA Mumia Abu-Jamal, in France Claudio Lavazza, in Spain Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, in Chile Marcelo Villarroel, in Greece Dimitris Koufontinas, Pola Roupa, Giannis Michailidis, in Israel the zionist State with Palestinian prisoners in permanent struggle who have recently started protests and hunger strikes, like so many other struggling social prisoners, revolutionaries, subversives, unmentioned, freedom for all!
Solidarity with Boris, in France, strength and courage, with Ivan, Toby.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE PRISONERS WHO REBELLED IN TERNI PRISON!
SOLIDARITY WITH THE MOST VULNERABLE, WITH THE GRANDMOTHERS AND GRANDFATHERS FORGOTTEN IN NURSING HOMES, ISOLATED FROM THEIR LOVED ONES WITH DIVIDING GLASS FOR VISITS JUST AS IN 41 BIS AND INCREASINGLY LOCKED UP IN PHYSICAL-SANITARY-TECHNOLOGICAL-REPRESSIVE CAGES TREATED LIKE SCRAPS TO BE THROWN AWAY!
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH THE PRISONERS OF THE SOCIAL STRUGGLE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD!
SOLIDARITY AND FREEDOM FOR ALL THE SUBVERSIVE, REVOLUTIONARY, ANARCHIST, LIBERTARIAN AND SOCIAL PRISONERS WHO STRUGGLE, FREEDOM FOR ALL!
DECLASSIFICATION FROM 41 BIS FOR ALFREDO COSPITO
AGAINST 41 BIS THAT ANNIHILATES PRISONERS
FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL PRISON STRUCTURES OF STATES AND CAPITALISM!
FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDARITY PRACTICES!
FOR ANARCHY!
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(IT) Dichiarazione dell’anarchico Juan Sorroche sull’inizio dello sciopero della fame in solidarietà con Alfredo Cospito (25 ottobre 2022)
(EN) Statement by anarchist Juan Sorroche on the start of hunger strike in solidarity with Alfredo Cospito (Italy, October 25, 2022)
(FR) Déclaration de l’anarchiste Juan Sorroche sur le début de sa grève de la faim en solidarité avec Alfredo Cospito (Italie, 25 octobre 2022)