Howling The Names Of Our Fallen

As the Haymarket Martyrs went to their deaths they were resolute, in no small part because they knew future generations of anarchists would remember them.

This sentiment extended from August Spies, “The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today,” to Louis Lingg, “I die happy on the gallows, so confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged us, then—mark my words—they will do the bombthrowing! In this hope do I say to you: I despise you. I despise your order, your laws, your force-propped authority. Hang me for it!”

Try as the forces of power have, they have not succeeded in stomping us out. The movement struggling in the streets of Chicago in 1886 spread around the world. As the saying goes, they tried to bury us, they didn’t realize we were seeds. They tried to pull us apart, they just cast our net wider. We are still here.

Every strand of anarchism, every one of our struggles, is woven together. Market anarchists like Dyer D Lum smuggled Lingg his dynamite, still others like Voltairine de Cleyre kept the secret of the actual bomber. For all our differences and distances we are a single unruly riot. Every color ultimately united in our campaign against power; no corner of the world cut off from any other.

Part of what gives us strength, what has enabled us to weather all manner of repression is our memory. We persist through remembering each other.

Every year we lose more friends and lovers to repression, and every year on this day we remember that despite everything we are still here.

Since last may day anarchists have been killed, we have been arrested on serious charges, and we have been sentenced. But we can staunch what is lost by remembering them and by staying connected to them. Here is an incomplete accounting since May Day 2018:

Deaths:

Lorenzo Orsetti (Tekoşer Piling), an Italian anarchist died fighting in Kurdistan

Farid Medjahed (Şehîd Şahîn Qereçox), a French anarchist died fighting in Kurdistan

Mikhail Zhlobitsky, a Russian anarchist died bombing FSB officers.

Dimitris Armakolas, a Greek anarchist died hanging a prison solidarity banner in Athens.

Arrests, Sentencing & Other Serious Repression:

In Bolivia Cesare Battisti, originally Italian and on the run for 38 years, was arrested and extradited.

In Belarus Yevgeny Chulitsky was arrested in Minsk. Additionally police attacked a forest campsite with 20 anarchists.

In Canada seven more anarchists were arrested in Hamilton in connection to Locke St protest and setenced with non-cooperating plea deals. Eventually two were imprisoned, one placed under house arrest. (Two got conditional discharge and the other three got their charges withdrawn.)

In Chile Miguel Ángel Varela Veas and Felipe Ríos Henríquez despite being on the run were sentenced in their absence to 15 years. Hugo Barraza Araya, Nicolás Bayer Monnard, and Rodrigo Araya Villalobos were each sentenced to 10 years in Valparaiso.

In Greece Giorgos Kalaitzidis was sentenced to another year and four months in prison. Pola Roupa was sentenced to life plus 25 Years. N. Maziotis sentenced to life plus 129 years. Additionally a police squadron kidnapped and tortured an anarchist migrant.

In Indonesia 69 were arrested during mayday 2018 in Yogyakarta, 11 kept in prison.

In Italy a number of waves of repression now including Operation Scintilla have wrapped up a large number of anarchists. Leonardo Landi was re-arrested to serve an extended sentence of 2 years, 8 months. Seven anarchists were arrested in Tretino and imprisoned — Agnese, Giulio, Nico, Poza, Rupert, Sasha, Stecco. A Torino squat was attacked and six arrested: Silvia Ruggeri, Giada Volpacchio, Antonio Rizzo, Lorenzo Salvato, Niccolò Blasi, and Giuseppe De Salvatore. In Turin the prosecution requested the following sentences of those already captured: Alfredo Cospito (30 years), Anna Beniamino (29 years), Gioacchino Somma (7 years and 6 months). And Valentina Speziale, Marco Bisesti, Pasquale Valitutti, Omar Nioi, Erika Preden, Alessandro Mercogliano, Stefano, Daniele, Claudia, and Sergio got 6 years and 6 months. Alessandro A. and Francesca G. got 8 years. Nicola Gai got 10 years. Danilo Cremonese got 10 years. Patrizia Marino got 7 years and 3 months. Carlo Tesseri got 8 years and 3 months. Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, Stefano Fosco, and Elisa Di Bernardo got 7 years

In Mexico, or more precisely Oaxaca, Miguel Ángel was sentenced to 50 years.

In Russia Ilya Romanov was sentenced to another five and a half years in prison.

Mikhail Kulkov and Maxim Ivankin were charged with “terrorist association” and drug charges. Viktor Filinkov, Yuli Boyarshinov, Igor Shiskin, and eight residents of Penza were put in custody, charged with terrorism, and tortured. Yevgeny Karakashev was sentenced to 6 years.

In Spain two were arrested in Madrid Oct 29th 2018 for ATM burning during solidarity actions with Lisa who is still imprisoned.

In Switzerland 15 anarchists in Basel were sentenced to 20-27 months in prison.

In Ukraine two houses were raided and threatened in Kiev by agents of the state looking for three people. Taras Bohay and Oleh Kordiaka were likewise searched in Lviv. Additionally an anarchist summer ecologist camp was invaded and interrogated by police and military. In Lviv a group of Nazis violently attacked four anarchists of the Black Flag collective with knives and hammers, leading to hospitalization.

In the USA, Chelsea Manning was arrested and held in solitary for contempt of court, engaging in grand jury resistance. Joseph Mahmoud Dibee was arrested in Cuba and extradited to Oregon for 90s green scare charges.