The first part of the preliminary hearing (of 6th and 13th May, 1997) ended with the judges moving it to July. Severa other charges had been added to the original ones (mainly the bomb-attack in Milano at the Palazzo Marino on April, 25th). The public prosecutor, Marini, demanded to add those new charges, which are:
Marini added that the group, despite the arrests, is continuing its criminal activities, e.g. the bank robbery in Spain, the attack in Milano, and the presence of anarchists in the Internet. In his opinion the organisation of the group has to be looked at again, in order to judge the role of some of the accused, who are still free, differently. Although he added, too, that there would still be members of the group, who - until now - "had not yet been identified".
So the investigations are far from over. Looking into and checking the files we found an important aspect: The investigators understand the famous, ill-famed anti-militaristic meeting in Forli 1988 as a historic split between the "hard" wing of the anarchist movement and the rest, being represented by the Italian anarchist federation (FAI), who expelled the "hard" wing. All this turns the trial from a political into a criminal matter, according to the files. With the expellation a situation came into existence where - according to the investigators - the (made-up) armed group (which was until recently called ORAI, and is now called Azione Rivoluzionaria) was founded.
All this is no small matter. It is not only important because it gives, at least at the first glance, a historic reason for the existence of the group. It is equally important, because it tries to make us believe that the expellation from the rest of the movement is not only the refusal of some illegal or violent plans by some anarchists but an important judgement and contribution to the isolation of all those who allegedly turned into wild criminals.
When he spoke on TV Marini stressed that the accusation is not an attack on the freedom of conviction, but an attempt to suffocate a dangerous gang of terrorists and criminals. He should be at least so informed as to know that among those who see themselves as anarchists in Italy the FAI is a ridiculous minority. He is even less interested in the fact that the anarchist galaxy who during the 60's and 70's really was lead by the anti-parliamentary left, has in the meantime transformed itself into uncountable collective and individualistic connections, and with and after the appearance of the punks and their squats left the usual "scene".
He knows only to well, because it is no secret, that the FAI and the organisers of the anti-militaristic meeting, who would know better, will do nothing to lighten up this matter. On the contrary, this organisations have already distanced themselves in their news-papers, with the bureaucratic and hypocritical explanation that there never was a meeting in Forli and that never were people expelled. Not a word of solidarity with the arrested, who - in their eyes - are not even allowed to call themselves anarchists.
From a political to a criminal accusation: let us bear this very well in our minds. Not because the arrested and accused had otherwise never experienced the oppression; each individual that sees itself as an anarchist can only bear in mind that its own decision in life and its own actions leave only two solutions: Either destruction of the state or death/prison. You could make a decision to make it through somehow and even to experience a little fun on the way to adapting oneself. This is a legitimate decision. One that could even be understood. But you could although decide to make your way into a dimension where you fight to suffer less, to possess more, to survive better, to be more happy.
And this is a legitimate decision too - if made with clear mind and with no hard feelings against those, who, for which reason whatsoever, be it good or bad, well- or unknown, decide not to tolerate what leads us and who therefore move without thinking. Without thinking, as otherwise everything turns into politics, predominance, power, assimilation, homogenity. Otherwise, everything we are not, everything that is different and has higher goals, dreams, wishes, feelings, would be the enemy.
And this is what seems to happen here. Marini is lucky. He and his servants from the ROS (Italian special police squad) have understood that they profit from this behaviour and that they can even use it: the more the "real", the "official" anarchists talk about such far-fetched and useless things like Soffri, fines for flyposting, carboot-sales and other stupid subjects and the more they are silent about those damned oppresive actions, the more Marini understands that his made up theory about the wrong congress/meeting works, indeed works very well.
The criminal case holds thanks to the silence of the bourgeois media and the means of information of the anti-parliamentary left. It holds thanks to the silence of the public awareness; a public, who knows nothing, or if it knows something is looking at once for a flag to wave or a common-place slogan. This is surely not the case for those who are in a run of bad luck today.
Marini actually holds little in his hands. A young woman, who cannot be trusted, and a few trials, that begin to fall apart already out of their own accord: no wonder that he demands more time - perhaps to arrest someone else, to hold something more useful in his hands.
He even starts to attack the internet now. It is hard to understand why exactly he is surprised and annoyed about the fact that even anarchists have ways to tell other people the things they hzave to say: "The group of the rebellious anarchists, called ORAI, is present in the internet with the regularly 'Canenero', which is the media of the movement...", "... The magazine gives two internet-addresses for receiving e-mails: elpasosq@freenet.hut.fi and lucpac@freenet.hut.fi, and for normal mail it lists the address of the Anarchist Defence Committee (CDA) c/o El Paso, Via Passo Buole n. 47 Torino 10127...", "...This not only shows the willingness to spread the rebellious anarchist ideology in the shortest possible time, it also shows a certain financial readiness...".
Maybe the next best youngster could explain him that such things are more or less free and need no specialists. Apart from his big words one can find many more things like the "rebellious propaganda", as he calls it, in the internet. Luckily.
Apart from the internet he also mentioned the arrest of Massimo Passamani in Paris. Who knows what is so strange about that? Is it not normal that somebody, who wants to escape his arrest, tries to leave the country? Closer than France... Massimos trial is set to be on July 15th, were his deportation will be discussed.
Next the arrest of Salvatore Condrós. An university professor, who was dragged into the story about the carbomb 1989 in Rome. People whispered to Marini: "A Frenchman". That was obviously enough already. Contró was arrested on February 6th in Marsiglia where he lived a normal life. He is supported by his own defence committee with more than 1,000 members: colleagues, artists, the cream of the institutionalised left of his city. He never was an anarchist, in the French press is said: "...never had sympathy for terrorists." Let's forget it. The trial for his deportation is set to be on June 6th, when the Chambre d´Accusation meets again.
And then Michele Pontolillo and the others from the bank robbery in Cordoba in December. From Michele we only can say that nobody can state more credible to have taken part in a bank robbery for personal reasons than he can. To have two children and then to stop bending down and working is easily understandable. We would not be surprised if he would have used the money to make the suffering of other people more bearable. We know his sensibility. He, Lavazza, and Rodriguez are accused of two more robberies in Albacete and the attack on the embassy in Malaga. Michele writes that the council of the ministers is in favour of the deportation of Lavazza, and that Lavazza is to be moved to Italy after the trial. In the prison of Jaen, where he and Barcia are, the strike of the "Patio" is continued. That means, the prisoners do not leave their cells as a protest against the inhumane conditions in the prison. Michele writes further, that the medical condition of Rodriguez is better (he has got bits of ammunition in his neck) but cannot write himself, because his hand is still paralyzed.
And then there is also the bomb attack on the Palazzo Marino on April 25th in Milano. There is even a declaration of guilt for this one, signed by azione rivoluzionaria anarchica (revolutionary anarchist action). This could be really a commemoration of the A.R. but we don't think so (azione rivoluzionaria was an armed anarchist structure active in the 70's which meanwhile is inactive.)
(...)
That's it so far. At July 1st, 12th, 15th and 17th the preliminary hearings in Rome will be continued. Let's see what the guardians of democracy come up with in the meantime.
From "Caliente"
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Part of a communiqué of the FAI's correspondence- commission (wow!):
"Actions like that bomb in Milano have no other outcomes than (...) to fuel the tendency to deal with the social matters against the public order (in original: in termini di ordine pubblico). Such actions lead today to nothing else than to a preparation of the laws and the order... The CDC (commisione di corrispondenza) likes to remind that the duty of the federal anarchists shows itself in the social struggles and in the practice of basic anarcho-syndicalism, collectivism, mutualism, international solidarity, communalism (sorry, the fuck knows where these people take their words from, it's not in the dictionary) and the anti-militarism."
Pitiful, too, the statement of the FAI from the region Reggio Emilia. These people protest in the anarchist newspaper Humanitá Nova about the room the press (probably the anarchist) gives to the bomb attack in Milano. An attack, they say, which in their opinion no anarchist could have ever undertaken. They are angry, because their -oh so fighting - meetings, i.e. the counter-culture, their public meetings and their self-governed experiences have not been given that much room. What they mean with self-governed experiences we do not know. For us it does not seem that any branch of the FAI does really live in an occupied building. They are all obediently paying their symbolic rent to the councils and cities (which would not be so bad if they would not talk about "self-governing" all the time.)
Regarding this point we have often wondered how the German FAU is getting on with their Italian counterpart. Even if we know that the FAU, too, takes a critical standpoint towards certain unorganised, individualistic anarchist campaigns, because these do not fit into the concept of the mass-struggle, we have nevertheless made the joyful experience that they do not distance themselves in a way that is close to denunciation. There where the FAI thinks it is necessary to call others "terrorists" and "non-anarchists" the German FAU prints at least the facts of the oppression (see also "direkte aktion"). This we think is o.k. in any case. Nobody has to give an opinion about something that he/she does not experience directly.
But how does the non-information and distancesation of the FAI go along with the information by the German FAU on an international anarchist level?