Spring has sprung

Here I am again, listening to these two “beautiful men” whilst I’m writing. I am sorry I haven’t written in a while, you must think I’m an incredibly lazy blogger…which, to be honest, wouldn’t be completely untrue…:-) The only excuse I can give is that what the British dare call “spring” – a space continuum of grey skies and nearly constant rain – makes me want to hibernate…but anyway, here we are…I thought I’d give you a little summary of what’s been going on in the past few weeks:

No arrest will stop this new spring

“Criminal organisation”, they say. We say: autonomy, conflict, direct action. “Dismantled”, they define it. We laugh at their delusions. It’s stating the obvious that this operation is the result of yet another frameup, so we won’t waste words on it. We’re not surprised that many of the comrades subjected to raids and forced to weekly report at police stations were never involved in Spazio Liberato 400 Colpi. These are comrades with whom we’ve shared many a struggle; political friendships that we’ve always wanted to cultivate, beyond the typical geopolitical borders – networks that have been able of producing conflict and that have brought a breath of fresh air to a pacified Florence.

Wave of arrests among radical student group in Florence

A second wave of arrests among radical circles has hit Italy again this morning. The operation, that was led by the police and secret service departments, has concluded with 22 banning orders and a total of 78 people under investigation in Florence, 5 under home arrest.

Wave of raids and arrests against anarchist networks

5 arrests in Bologna, 7 banning orders, 60 raids all over Italy

On April 6 more than 300 officers were employed in an “anti-terrorism” operation named ‘Outlaw Operation’ that specially targeted anarcho-insurrectionalist activists. The operation was carried out in 16 different cities including Bologna, where police arrested 5 activists close to the squatted social centre Fuoriluogo and shut down the place. Another person was arrested in the nearby town of Ferrara and released straight after interrogation. 7 other people are under banning orders which restrict their movements and are also being investigated (just for your information, these measures are normally adopted when there is serious circumstantial evidence of guilt AND at least one of the following: risk of escape, risk of acquisition or of the genuineness of the evidence and risk of the offence being repeated).