In the night between 14th and 15th January fire-lighters were placed and ignited on the tyres of a vehicle belonging to the construction company Implenia in Schmitten (Fribourg Canton).
“Again extreme-left vandals”
Whatever label they want to stick on us, they are only trying to distract us from what we want to really transmit. We are a group of friends who are fed up with accepting passively the mechanisms of oppression that govern and devastate the world. We often discuss about what disturbs us and what we can do to oppose it.
“Come on! It’s only a mere act of vandalism!”
The fact we decided to attack Implenia didn’t come by chance. Implenia is one of the most important companies involved in the extension of the prison for foreigners of “Bässlergut” in Basle.
We are no longer to tolerate the fact that companies make profits by locking up and deporting people.
In any case we are very angry. Little matter whether we are 15, 25, 45 or 75-year-old, this doesn’t change the fact we can’t and don’t want to live without doing anything, with this anger inside ourselves.
How could we do otherwise if we were separated from our friends being deported (or “taken back to the borders” as they say in political jargon)?
We are angry at all those who accept and support this shit and those who like Implenia make profits on it.
We don’t want to resign ourselves or conform to the rules nor do we want to do as if this reality didn’t exist. We want to express our anger and oppose domination in an active way.
“But actions like this one come to nothing. What are you trying to achieve exactly?”
Direct actions like this one are one of the many means to challenge the public image of the companies by targeting their cars, bulldozers and yards. If they are the target of sabotage at all times and in all places, soon they won’t be able to show off their signs everywhere. Less advertising space =fewer profits.
Moreover the companies are forced to spend more money for reparations and the purchase of new vehicles. They suffer loss of profits because they no longer have cars, bulldozers and other vehicles.
Sadly there’s no critique to the prison system and the deportation machine in society as a whole. The media rant about the news and make sensationalism but they don’t mention any in-depth critique. We’d like to put an end to all this and show that many important things are happening with many direct actions. Other forms of action are also part of the resistance against the world of oppression and they are neither more nor less important. Maybe the media campaign built around these direct actions will shed some light on the range of actions of resistance, small and big, peaceful and combative.
Finally of course we hope that the companies participating in construction works such as those of Bässlergut in Basle, the police headquarters in Zurich, federal camps and other prisons will fear for their image and profits and will lose their contracts.
“But we are all right here, what are you moaning about all the time?”
[…] But even in “beautiful and perfect” Switzerland, many people are really in the shit. Only their suffering is often invisible. For example in the last year dozen people died in prison, often after episode of self-harming, which is exemplary of the grade of prisoners’ desperation. Here is a list, certainly incomplete:– In November a 61-year-old woman committed suicide in the regional prison of Thun.
– On 7th December a 21-year-old man committed suicide in the regional prison of Berna.
– In February two people committed suicide in the prison of Muttenz, near Basle.
– In June a 29-year-old man committed suicide in the prison of Champ-Dollon in Geneva.
– In July a man hang himself in the prison of “La Croisée”, near Orbe.
– In September a prisoner refused to go back to the cell after the hour in the exercise yard in the prison of Bochuz, he went up the roof and threatened to kill himself. Then he was restrained by the screws and put in solitary confinement and thrashed the cell on the same day.
– On 24th October a 23-year-old man died in the prison of “Blecherette” in Lausanne in suspicious circumstances.
– On 25th October a 61-year-old man was found dead in the prison of “Farera”, in Ticino.
This list is painful and certainly is not complete. But it shows a brutal continuity and that it’s important to revolt against the prison system. For example by attacking those who build the prisons.
For a world deprived of as much oppression and domination as possible!
Translated by act for freedom now!
