Scripta Manent English

Everything was ready from the morning: journalists and live TV on the national channel…

A miserable judge in Turin, Roberto Sparagna, left no stone unturned in putting pressure on a gang of equally miserable individuals (jury led by judge Alessandra Salvadori).

A poor madman in search of fame after having moved from the anti-mafia prosecution to the terrorism one, he succeeded where other miserable colleagues of his had failed for decades: subversive association for the purposes of terrorism.

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A first instance sentence was issued in the trial begun in June 2017 regarding the “Scripta manent” operation, which on September 6, 2016 led to the arrest of five anarchist comrades and the notification of pre-trial detention to two other imprisoned anarchist comrades (Alfredo and Nicola). The requests of condemnation proposed by the public prosecutor R. Sparagna for 22 accused anarchist comrades exceeded 200 years.

On April 24^th sentences have been issued, as reported in Croce Nera Anarchica website:

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Recently, as I was reading the report on the hearings of the trial that we are facing following the Turin investigation “Scripta Manent”, staged by prosecutor Roberto Sparagna, I noticed an explanation regarding the keylogger (or Agent Elena, as the miserable Naples ROS called it).

A text that appears in some sites says that a keylogger was allegedly used to intercept off-line comments during RadioAzione live recordings. That would be nice, but unfortunately the reality is different.

The keylogger was a proper bug, sent to my PC via internet through a virus, and it was capable of intercepting everything around my computer. It was sufficient for the computer to be connected to the internet and the miserable ones were able to hear all audio nearby (no video because the webcam has always been blocked out).
So, because I have my PC in my bedroom they listened not only to radio off-line comments but even more… everything in fact!
Moreover it was used to create screenshot sequences of my desktop while I was writing texts or translating those of other comrades, which were subsequently published in the RadioAzione website. All this for six years in a row, in spite of the fact that I formatted my PC on a number of occasions.

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After the hearing of winter 2018, mainly reports on specific alleged facts against the accused and the outline of the accusatory scheme on the crime of association according to the Digos of Turin, from 8^th April to 16^th May some ROS officers from Perugia – Rossi, Mencarelli, Simeon, Mariucci, Passeri – paraded themselves, some of whom are still in service there, others transferred to similar offices elsewhere in the country, to relate on the ‘Ardire’ investigation, later included in Scripta Manent, with digressions and providential amnesia on other investigations and files connected to anti-anarchist monitoring activity starting from so called operation Brushwood to operation Shadow, mainly through telematic, telephone, environmental interceptions and control of letters.

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In view of the presence in solidarity at the court on 31 March, we are writing these few lines to reaffirm a few fundamental concepts regarding this trial and the court carrying it out. First of all, we reaffirm our closeness to the arrested comrades: for us they are brothers and the pride with which they are confronting this little theatre makes us proud.

We also reaffirm our attachment, stronger than ever, to the anarchist ideal and our hatred of this society that thrives on death and exploitation. We are anarchists, it is normal for the State to attack us, we do not expect anything else from you and this is why your repression does not surprise us except for its clumsiness and scares us even less. In fact, after a year and a half you find us with the same positions of attack on this system. We are accused of terrorism, but we continue to point the finger at the State and its laws that you administer which legitimize the exploitation, exclusion and death of millions of people throughout the world every day, to protect the interests of those who profit from all this. It is you who are under accusation: the dead in the wars in the Middle East and Africa, those who drown while fleeing poverty, the increasingly fierce exploitation of labour, the plundering of resources and the destruction of ecosystems, living conditions more and more like survival and the ever deeper interference in our lives by the State. The law would like to treat the dissent that all this generates with jail, branding it as a crime, but it takes a lot more to shut us up.

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Anyone who forgets prisoners of social war, has forgotten the war itself! (Paris, 2016)

The state strikes and will continue to strike anarchists and revolutionaries as long as these are worthy of their name.

The Scripta Manent trial, begun in June 2017, concerns 40 years of the history of the anarchist movement, of which we are a part, and is continuing at a fast pace.

The cornerstone of the accusatory theorem of this inquest is based on the differentiation between “good” and “bad” anarchists and an instrumental interpretation, by the repressive apparatus, of the debate within in the anarchist movement.

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Text written by Anna and Marco about the progress of the trial in which they are defendants for the Scripta Manent operation.

At the hearings of January and February the witnesses for the accusation (originally the PM Sparagna mentioned there would be about seventy) have continued to be heard, mainly Turin Digos [political police], police, carabinieri, bomb disposal experts, witnesses, the forensic departments of Rome and of the Ris [carabinieri forensic unit] of Parma, all in relation to the specific crimes alleged. Also some editors or former editors of Radio Blackout of Turin have been called to testify on the receiving of some claims, and an occupant of the Asilo [squat in Turin] in relation to knowing and corresponding with the defendants.

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The anarchist comrade Anna Beniamino (arrested in September 2016 in the framework of operation Scripta Manent, currently detained in Rebibbia prison, Rome) has informed us (2 April 2018) that “the inevitable loudly comments”, made during the ongoing trial for the aforementioned operation, “earned” her and Marco Bisesti (detained since 09/2016, too, currently in Alessandria prison) a couple of disciplinary reports, commuted to a few days of solitary confinement.

Both comrades are laughing at “punishment”.

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There’s not much to be said about an episode of repression, after all it’s the simple cyclical occurrence of action and reaction – or even on how repression plays dirty – another well-known fact. At most these are just a few notes on the development of techniques and strategies.

This I’ll try to do. More than a year after the arrests, with the trial already underway, a crack has opened in the censuring bell jar and the court papers been disclosed in all their misery after the short report on the last issue of “Croce Nera” and the latest developments on the closure of investigations and the preliminary hearing.

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We live in a world where being connected is essential if we want to keep up with the times and keep pace with the neurotic rhythm that modern society is offering us.
Human relationships have broken up behind displays, Apps.
Without WhatsApp you risk being excluded from your group of friends… seriously.
At work, in the family, as a couple, we all need to be constantly available: “send your precise position”, “send a selfie “, “listen to this voice message”.

Although we realize that “perhaps” we’re spending a lot of time at home, links are becoming more and more virtual and our first thought as soon as we get in after a day’s work is to turn on the pc, we don’t want to figure out for ourselves that something’s wrong, we’re lying to ourselves.
It’s a well-known fact that technology and its damsels have full control over our lives today, what needs to be analysed is why we’ve accepted it.

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All the defendants who are able to attend the hearings have expressed a desire to see a possible solidarity presence in the courtroom.

Marco has attended some of the last hearings, but he doesn’t know whether he will attend or not the next ones, since lately he is attending alone.

Anna obtained the permit to attend the hearings of 7^th and 8^th, therefore we CALL FOR A SOLIDARITY PRESENCE IN COURTROOM to give them a sign of closeness and support.

For all we know, Danilo, Alfredo and Anna get their mail regularly. They are fine and in high spirit.

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Rome, December 1^st.

6 “enjoy” cars of car-sharing Eni-Trenitalia [developed by gas&oil company in partnership with Fiat and Trenitalia, primary train operator owned by the Italian government] for its involvement in Libya.
Let’s attack ENI everywhere.

Solidarity to the detainees and the accused for Scripta Manent, for Florence, to comrades hit by repression for the cop cars torched in France and Poland, to accused from Brenner Pass and to all those who do not bend to this rotten existent. A greeting to Krem in solitary confinement.

(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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To the Court of Turin

Today, as well as for all the future hearings of this trial that sees me accused along with my brothers, sisters, but above all anarchist comrades, I will not give you the satisfaction of seeing my face in a courtroom of this tribunal.

I have never gone to the courtrooms where my funeral was being prepared in the past and I will not do so now!

I am anarchist, individualist, anti-authoritarian and above all I am for the insurrection, which has as one of its primary goals that of destroying places of death like this one and the prisons.

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We find ourselves facing you in order to be judged. Guilty or innocent? But what are we accused of? In the thousands of pages produced by the prosecutor, over twenty years’ history of anarchist struggle in Italy are covered and not only, specific facts are mentioned to back up suppositions and conjecture, but in fact what do you want to convince yourselves of with all that mountain of paper? You want to convince yourselves that we are anarchists. That we don’t passively accept the system that governs us, the inevitability of man’s domination over man and nature. They are asking you to condemn the love that unites the human beings who share the unstoppable desire for freedom bound by their common contempt for authority. If that’s why we are here let’s put an end to this farce before it begins. We are guilty.

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GENOA:

There is a lot of anger, and sometimes a little is enough for it to turn into fire.

Anger and fire go together and do not wait for field days to show themselves, they strike rich and poor alike as happened at the Genoa G8 or the Hamburg G20, showing their best face at such times.

Fire and anger just act, they don’t prepare the ground for revolution, they’re not looking for adepts among the masses, they look sadly at a society that has nothing left to ask of its very existence.

Fire and anger: the first an element, the second a feeling, it takes little to get them to wed, just a little courage, then they let out a scream that pierces the cloak of apathy which this dying society is now drenched in and addicted to.

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“On November 4^th Davide began an indefinite hunger strike as an answer to the prison:

Against the denial of attending the next hearing in Cagliari on February 14, against the total solitary confinement under article 14bis and its extension for a further six months, against its prisons, its cells, against the prison domination.

In solidarity and closeness with comrades arrested and involved in operation Scripta Manent, who will stand trial on November 16^th.

Let’s the direct, beautiful, insurgent, flaming action warm our hearts.

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Genoa, by night: A car of Italian Post Office torched in solidarity with the prisoners of Scripta Manent, with Ghespe and Paska. We are with you! For all migrants who died on borders.

On November 16^th, at 10 am, in front of the high security court in Turin, will be held the first hearing of the trial Scripta Manent, and it will be a long-running case, in which 22 anarchist comrades are charged, and seven of them are still in prison.

The repressive State apparatus accuses a part of the anarchist movement of attacking it with the practices of: destructive direct action against its structures and its men, realization and distribution of anarchist publications, and support for revolutionary prisoners.

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