Alfredo Cospito English

24.07.19: Comrade Alfredo Cospito started feeling unwell 15 days ago, right after his hunger strike ended. He immediately insisted on a CT scan. In fact, as soon as the CT scan was carried out, he was urgently transferred to the hospital where he was operated on. The operation went for 5 hours as they had to remove his gallbladder, which had ruptured. All this because the doctors had been saying for months that it was necessary to operate, but the prison kept postponing, trying to solve the problem with tablets, which in reality did not solve anything. The situation got worse with the hunger strike.

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Ferrara, July 14th, 2019
I give you the tragicomic news that my bloody gall bladder after 5 hours of operation has left us (8 July) due to a hunger strike. Excuse me but I’m still not able to respond decently to your many letters. But count on my answers. The only positive thing is that I lost 21 kg. Keep on writing to me. Sure that the struggle in solidarity with the comrades proceeds ever more effectively.
Alfredo

[Note: Alfredo refers to the hunger strike against the restrictions and conditions in the AS2 section of L’Aquila prison undertaken in Italy by some imprisones anarchists, from May 29th until the end of June].

It’s been a long while. After a year we are publishing another issue of Vetriolo, issue number 2. We haven’t brought out the paper more frequently up to now, nor have we wanted to. Not that we didn’t have anything to say during this time, on the contrary. However we have never strenuously followed the possibility of giving a strict periodicity to the publication, which because of its form (with fairly concise texts of agitation, analysis and topicality as well as more extensive and complicated theoretical articles) is not suited to it. At the same time we’d like the paper to come out without long delays. In any case we think that this paper is an important instrument for the anarchist movement regardless of the frequency with which it comes out. The pages of Vetriolo have always been and will continue to be a means aimed at discussion, dialogue and confrontation among anarchists. The paper will continue to give time and space to dialogue and debate among revolutionaries, including those who find themselves imprisoned. In this issue there are writings and articles by Marco, Anna and Alfredo, imprisoned following the arrests of the repressive operation ‘scripta manent’ of 6^th September 2016.

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(translated by act for freedom now!)

On 16/11/2017 the SCRIPTA MANENT trial began inside the bunker courtroom of ‘Le Vallette’ prison in Turin. Imprisoned anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito read a long declaration. Alfredo was not present in court as he was subjected to video conferencing from inside the AS2 unit in the prison of Ferrara.

Declaration to the Court:

Benevento 14^th August 1878- Turin 16^th 2017

Malefactors on trial

The Union of Egoists is your instrument, it is the sword with which you increase your natural strength; the Union exists thanks to you. Society, on the other hand, demands much from you and it exists without you; in short, society is sacred, Union is yours; society uses you, the Union–you use it – Stirner

O, gentlemen, the time of life is short! .. An if we live, we live to tread on kings — Shakespeare, Henry IV

I regret every crime in my life that I haven’t committed, every desire that I have not satisfied – Senna Hoy

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In these three years I was faced with choices which led me by the hand through a path fraught with crossroads and bifurcations.

Like on a minefield, I had to decide carefully where to step, with my pride and my self-respect at stake. The first choice I had to face with was whether I should continue to contribute, or let the prison overflow me, patiently waiting to get out. As limited as my situation is, I chose to continue to contribute through the written word. Once I made this decision I faced another crossroad: whether to confine myself — ecumenically — from this “high point” of my “status” (sic.) of a “revolutionary” prisoner — to bestowing blessings in each directions, applauding to every anarchist practice, paying attention not to make any enemies; or to use the weapon of critique, ever more harshly, trying to outline some analysis, to open some discourses. I chose the easier way (at least for me): openly push my critique to the extremes, at the cost of isolation (less letters, less information, less generic solidarity).

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With 30 years of charges on my back, it may seem absurd to feel the need to communicate projects and considerations. With the insistent censorship that distorts everything I write and say, it may seem stupid and mad to continue to resolutely communicate and write considerations lending themselves to censorship. I need such stupidity and madness to feel still alive and participating.
I have only one choice, back to the wall: continuing struggling, continuing with every means at my disposal.

I got inspiration to write this text from the prosecutor Sparagna [in charge for Scripta Manent]; in his solitary “interlocutory — monologue” he claimed with ill-concealed embarrassment that he got us by process of elimination, by the “scorched earth” that the anarchist movement in Italy made around us. Is it possible that the anarchist movement here in Italy sank so low as to not feel empathy with comrades caught in a grip of repression, to think of us as a foreign body?
The truth can not be found in the “specious” and stupid logic of a prosecutor from Turin. The truth is hidden in the folds, in different expressions of solidarity that have been addressed to us, in the opportunity that even a wave of repression such this one could give us. This is apparent from many actions expressing solidarity across the globe to us, this is apparent from a few but significant solidarity statements that we received. At first glance these statements may seem like the usual solidarity for appearances’ sake, but at my eyes they become fully meaningful.
Maybe because of their origins, comrades with different projects, despite everything, were profoundly, directly, touched. Maybe because all these comrades are in some way part of this anarchism of praxis that keeps anarchy alive and kicking, and well reacting across the globe. For this and for many other reasons, those words of solidarity are no small things and can become an opportunity, especially if they can go beyond the repressive matter.

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