Second trial of the ‘Halandri case’ – Day 2, December 20th, 2011
Special court of Koridallos women’s prisons
Before the hearing was adjourned, the four defendants made a statement. Christos Tsakalos read it after explaining that, ‘We want to read a political statement in regard to the facts of our recent attempted escape from Koridallos prisons. Initially, the issue may seem irrelevant to the court’s case, nevertheless it has a direct relation, for a specific reason. This attempt of ours not only conveyed a message to Koridallos prisons and the entire prison system in general, but also to this court.’
The full text of the statement, a copy of which was filed in the court records, is as follows:
POLITICAL STATEMENT of the R.O. Conspiracy of Cells of Fire
This statement is made to clarify and publicly state our position in relation to our recent attempted escape from prison.
The fact that we are captives in the prison cells of democracy does not mean that we accept for a moment our position either as prisoners or as defendants before the civil court-martial that you have set up against us. There will never be either a prison guard to lock up our soul or a judge to rule on our values. We are eternal enemies of law and order and eternal prison breakers.
Obviously these few following words cannot describe the miserable conditions inside penitentiaries that are experienced by those inmates who have not given up their dignity, but carry it with them in each and every isolation wing, each and every disciplinary unit, each and every transfer, each and every torment, each and every beating…
You, the appointed military judges of the judicial mafia, may give out sentences to hundreds of years in prison sitting on your benches, obeying the hands which move you as puppets, but you should know that our willingness for freedom is catching fire day by day.
With your decisions, as modern hangmen, you bury people in tons of concrete and bars, thus hiding the consequences of the rotten system that you serve. As for us who are anarchist urban guerillas, you wish to retaliate and punish us because you know that your names and those like you are already written to the list of our future targets. The prison, in which you send people as easily as you leaf through the case files, is a huge mincer that grinds bodies, feelings, thoughts, imagination…
It’s a sterile mechanical world where orders from loudspeakers, lockings of prison cells and the noise of human resignation are echoing.
The vast majority of inmates have made a fools’ agreement and surrendered their freedom and dignity in exchange for a day wage, a temporary leave, a promise of parole or even for nothing.
All discussions about the humanization of the penitentiary system are nothing but foolish and hypocritical talk. The solution is one; you either escape or destroy the prison.
Within this choice of ours, we heard knocks on the wall also from different circles of fellowship and met people who shared with us the common desire for freedom. We can say clearly that we are proud of our choices and the relationships that we have built with them through our joint attempt to escape, even if it did not live up to our aspirations. Unhappily, we stood less fortunate than we wanted, while stupidity found its expression in a homunculus-guard showing that it is powerful.
Some people will rush to talk about failure.
Yet, our escape succeeded. We escaped from the defeatist acceptance of our role as prisoners. We escaped from the sleep up by psychiatric drugs that are generously distributed in prisons, from the benefits of day wages, from the illusions of future leaves and paroles, and we acted as anarchist revolutionaries.
If the work of jailers and judges is to lock the prisons’ doors, ours is to unlock and violate them. Even though we failed to release our bodies, we released our existence even for a few moments, occupying a space in prison.
This sense is unique, and we do not regret anything.
Besides, we struggle for a freedom beyond the official version of the laws and values of this society. This struggle cannot either be tried or imprisoned.
Today, many people die from traffic accidents, drug addiction, industrial diseases. Others accept the death of boredom and loneliness, sunk in the conventions of a law-loving life. We choose to risk our lives for the leap to freedom, even though there is no safety net underneath. There is nothing more important than that.
Now, we lost a battle, but not the war. We are looking forward.
Each time promises a new project, a new collaboration-friendship, an unexpected chance which lies before us dangerous and subversive.
Besides, what matters is not if you get caught but if you surrender within you…
LONG LIVE THE CONSPIRACY OF CELLS OF FIRE /
INFORMAL ANARCHIST FEDERATION (FAI)
LONG LIVE THE INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY FRONT
LONG LIVE THE BLACK ANARCHIST INTERNATIONAL
The imprisoned members of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire
The trial was interrupted to continue on Monday, January 9th, 2012. Relatives and friends of the defendants call for comrades’ presence inside the courtroom during the proceedings, in solidarity with Damiano Bolano, Giorgos Nikolopoulos, Michalis Nikolopoulos and Christos Tsakalos.