macerie
From the New Arrivals unit in B block of Le Vallette prison, Fran sent a letter to let us know that he and another comrade in the unit were on hunger strike for 24 hours, from Saturday 27th May to Sunday 28th May, against the conditions of imprisonment at New Arrivals, in solidarity with other revolutionary prisoners and to respond to the call ‘For a dangerous June’.
In another letter, Fran says he will begin another hunger strike, this time for 7 days, from Monday 5th June, against prison conditions at New Arrivals. [In an update given by the lawyers on 3rd June, we learned that Fran was moved from the New Arrivals unit the day after the start of his protest and therefore he stopped the hunger strike.]
We can confirm that the trial for the events that led to the 3rd May arrests will begin on 5th October without a preliminary hearing.
Here is Fran’s letter on the 24-hour hunger strike:
«Hi everybody,
I’m in the B block of the New Arrivals unit of Le Vallette prison in Turin.
In this unit one can go to the gym in the morning two days a week, watch a film once a week and engage in arts or music activities once a week in the afternoon. There are also Italian lessons at the same time as the gym, art or music activities. Usually everybody wants to go to these because they get 30 minutes more than they get in the exercise yard
We are locked up 22 hours a day, the other 2 are for the exercise yard. No sociality, with other prisoners we talk only between the bars or when we go to the shower. Nearly all the mattresses are mouldy, we are continuously threatened and blackmailed by the guards, and have very little information on the prison and our rights. In order to know something, information is passed from prisoner to prisoner or one has to wait for the screws to be in the right mood. It’s a proper punishment unit, as we are forced to listen to their listless degrading answers
Following the call to break isolation, the hunger strikes in Palestine and the call for “A dangerous June”, I decided to go on hunger strike for 24 hours. From Saturday 27th May, at the time when they switch the lights off in the unit, to Sunday 28 at the same time, roughly 9pm. I’m doing this not only to say what the New Arrivals unit is like, i.e. proper punishment detention, not only to greet the rebels, the revolutionaries and those who struggle for total liberation, all the prisoners who don’t bow down and all those who refuse to comply with restrictive measures like the comrades of Madrid and Barcelona, Codo a Codo (elbow to elbow); but also to give strength and determination to the comrades who made the call “For a dangerous June”.
While the G7 States’ leaders and shit like them are eating caviar and lobsters in Italy, I and a prison mate won’t be eating. We think it unnecessary to inform the administration about our choice because we won’t get anything from them, given their politics of punishment towards new arrivals. In this protest, however symbolic, it is important that communication is accurate and relations of complicity are forged, that’s why I won’t be alone inside or outside.
I made this choice, even if a little late and with no coordination with the other comrades locked up at Le Vallette due to the time it takes for communication by post, because I believe it is right to support the choice of comrades with whom I agree on many points and to talk about the shit we have to face inside here! After I read Alfredo’s call “Let’s break isolation” concerning his hunger strike, after I learned of the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike and after the call for the month of June, I made this decision.
Other comrades in the unit agreed, in particular to protest against the isolation that we experience in here because they deny us sociality; we decided for Sunday because the threats and blackmail are more frequent this day: we have to go round and round just to get some minutes outside the cell, after the shower and the exercise yard, you repeatedly hear requests for a few seconds more in order to talk to a neighbour prisoner. They think they can keep us quiet by giving us a few cakes. Then there are many other reasons, for example in my case, as I hardly speak to the guards, it was difficult to understand the way prison functions, and sometimes I missed on some benefits. Others are much worse off than me. I’ve got everything in the cell, other have much less or are in bare cells.
This Sunday we won’t be eating, we won’t be taking any of their shit food, neither cake nor rabbit. They can keep their fucking cakes. The situation puts the workers in the unit, whose cells are kept open all day, in the role of screws in a real jungle of powers, day after day.
Along with the comrade in the unit who will be on hunger strike with me, we decided to pin a note about the hunger strike outside the armoured door so that all the screws can read it. When the food trolley passes I’ll close the door and inform the food worker.
If there was more political awareness, we could try to get sociality or have the cells open, as happened after the struggles in 2008, when they managed to get dinner on Sundays.
A tutti quelle che hanno creduto e lottato, a tutti quelli che credono e lottano, a tutti quelli che crederanno e lotteranno, per la liberazione totale. Per l’anarchia. Un saluto ribelle.
Anonima Toxina 26 maggio 2017 »
To all those who believed and struggled, to all those who believe and struggle, to all those who will believe and struggle, for total liberation. For anarchy. A rebel greeting.
Anonima Toxina 26th May 2017 »
macerie @ June 2, 2017
