Athens: Letter from CCF imprisoned member Christos Tsakalos, who has been on hunger strike from April 8th (Greece)

‘When one does not die for the other, then we are already dead’

[Tasos Livaditis]

I am not a humanist and therefore will not talk like a humanist. I place myself on the side of the anarchists of praxis. In the battle for a free life without leaders and minions, often a price to pay is the prison. This price has been imposed on me a year ago, since I am imprisoned–CAPTIVE by the State. Captive but not defeated; because for me, as an anarchist urban guerrilla, prison is a temporary stop but never the terminal. During this whole year, I did not allow prison to tame or to ‘correct’ me, or to subdue my body and my memory through the dead repetition of the time-jailer.

From the very first moment, however, a ceaseless psychological warfare and a special detention regime were launched against all comrades who participate in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.

Personally, I was led to Grevena prisons, initially ‘placed’ in a protection ward (where I refused to stay and so I was removed), while I have been moved more than 20 times with emergency transfers — with special bulletproof trucks, ΕΚΑΜ (special suppressive antiterrorist units), antiterrorism task forces, special units for prison transfers — during which I was held in the disciplinary ward of Diavata prisons and in Thessaloniki prison transfers department, each time with a twenty member police unit for ‘personal’ custody.

The truth is that I did not expect anything less from the adversary. Once we declared war against the State and its society, we knew the cost of our actions, and we remain unrepentant in our choices. This does not mean, though, that we will remain with folded hands. We owe ourselves one more fight… until the next one.

Thus, I refuse to put life in parentheses. Here, inside the prison, in the land of shadows I remain at loggerheads with the existent, its uniforms and subordinates. In this battle, without risking your life you are not even able to live your life with passion. In nowadays massive society of the State there is neither risk, nor passion. There is only fear and routine. Most people are frightened and alone; but never alive.

When one does not die for the other, then we are already dead. So, today, Sunday, April 8th, I begin hunger strike in factual solidarity with comrades Panagiotis Argirou and Gerasimos Tsakalos, who are carrying out a hunger strike demanding their transfer in Koridallos prisons and the permanent cessation of vengeful transfers from one prison to another. Remaining consistent in our words and choices as Conspiracy, this move is also a first gesture towards the creation of a political collective for symbiosis in prisons.

So, now that the [Easter] holidays are coming, now that everyone does their shopping, or cheats their poverty, in decorated streets and shop windows, we ‘offer’ hunger strike at your festive table. As anyone can understand, the hunger strike is an ultimate means of struggle. It is a battle to the death in slow motion. It is the will to live against resignation and submission. But it is something else as well. It is the mirror of society’s guilt. It is the mirror that reveals society’s silences. It is the mirror of indifference, the mirror of empty values, the mirror of resignation, the mirror of fear, the mirror of the lonely crowd… Behind the mirror there is LIFE. It is enough to break the mirror.

PS. During this same period, a hunger strike is conducted for the release of the anarchist Stella Antoniou and the termination of prosecution proceedings regarding the 250 incendiary and explosive attacks for which the CCF has claimed political responsibility, against individuals who have no association with the Conspiracy.

My support to the above requests is more than obvious.

FOR THE DIFFUSION OF FAI/IRF – FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL OF ANARCHISTS OF PRAXIS



Christos Tsakalos

Member of the imprisoned cell of CCF/FAI

Tags: Athens, Black International of Anarchists of Praxis, Christos Tsakalos, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire : Imprisoned Members Cell, Gerasimos Tsakalos, Greece, Hungerstrike, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Revolutionary Front, Korydallos Prison, Panagiotis Argirou, Stella Antoniou

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Prison Struggle.