On April 13th, 2016, the Mossos d’Esquadra (the police force of Catalonia), in collaboration with the German police, raided three homes in Barcelona, which culminated in the arrest of two women comrades accused of expropriating a branch of the Pax Bank (which is owned by the Vatican) in Aachen, Germany. The ensuing trial resulted in the acquittal of one of the comrades, and a sentence of 7.5 years for Lisa, a comrade who has been very actively involved in anarchist, feminist and anti-racist struggles in Barcelona.
After being incarcerated for 2.5 years inside the prisons of the Spanish and German states, Lisa was extradited to the prison in Soto del Real (a town located about 43km from Madrid), where she remains to this day, held in a cell for 21 hours a day with only 3 hours of fresh air / exercise, in complete isolation. But today we intend to shorten distances and break this isolation that seeks to indoctrinate, punish and nullify.
We are also here to defend emancipatory dreams of attack that affect the way of life that is imposed upon us. We are here because in no circumstances should it be considered a crime for somebody who has nothing to expropriate from those who engage in large scale theft from our communities, who evict people from our villages and cities and destroy the land to benefit rich lobby groups. It shouldn’t be considered a crime, it should be seen as an act of poetic resistance against the maximum exponent of violent capitalism; the banks. We are here because we would like to send Lisa the hug that the walls hinder, and a wink with a modest rebellious salute, to make visible the anger that burns against all that imprisons our way of thinking, and send to her via actions, gestures and words all our love and complicit affection.
But Lisa’s situation is not an isolated case. Currently, there are millions of imprisoned women and other dissident identities, who suffer daily under the weight of the prison system and the abuses that occur within it. This system tries to subject them to a multiple sentence; in addition to being punished at the judicial level, they are also punished socially and morally for having questioned their assigned role.
At the same time, we are here to question the entire judicial, penitentiary and punitive system that we live under and which we reject. There are countless cases that demonstrate how the raison d’etre of these imposed structures is to defend the economic and political interests that benefit those in power.
We are here once again, to make all of this visible, to show that these huge walls cannot separate us from our people, nor from all those who struggle and remain in our hears.
For all these reasons and for many more that we can’t fit in this statement, we will not rest until there are no more bars, cages or walls.
DOWN WITH THE PRISON WALLS!!!
FREEDOM FOR LISA, FREEDOM FOR EVERYBODY!!!
(via Anarhija and Anarquia, translated into English for Mpalothia by Anarchists Worldwide)
