Statement read by Michele Fabiani in the Sibilla proceedings

From Dark Nights

Original title: "Italy: Statement read by Michele Fabiani during the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla proceedings"

Statement read by Michele Fabiani during the preliminary hearing in the Sibilla proceedings

Legalitarian rhetoric sees trials as a moment in which truths are established, in which a person endowed with willpower must willingly or unwillingly assume responsibility with respect to malicious episodes. To the point that one is in effect acquitted when it is established that the accused is not of sound mind. I have never believed anything like that in my entire life: I think it is an ideological junk typical of bourgeois liberalism to crush necessity, need, material conditions, personal formation, innate impulses within the concepts of guilt and innocence. But today I want to follow, in the economy of this speech, the commonplace. Not least because today marks the likely beginning of a particular trial, a trial against books and newspapers.

What kind of truth does Operation Sibilla conceal? And what responsibility are the protagonists taking on?

For consistency I start with my own, of responsibilities. I have written articles, I have published and disseminated anarchist press, I have published anarchist books. I published, through Monte Bove Editions, the book Which International? by Alfredo Cospito and many others. And I am so proud of having done that, that just last October-in a deliberately provocative gesture toward the previous preliminary hearing-I printed its third edition.

However, there are responsibilities that will also have to be assumed by those who support the prosecution, in a trial in which the body of the crime are books and newspapers. I say this with extreme sincerity, I just do not understand how the state cannot comprehend such elementary evidence: since the world began, he who is censored, gagged, interned, tortured for his ideas gains popularity and fame from the very action of censorship. Everyone knows who Socrates and Giordano Bruno are, I don’t think anyone in here knows the names of Meleto or Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio.

Which side of the story do you sit on?

When it comes to accountability there is one that is greater than all and frankly crushes jurisprudential technicalities. When it comes to truth, I cannot be silent about the most shameful truth of this trial. As we discuss criminal procedure there is an elephant in the room. Right in here.

I just cannot keep quiet about the scandal that there is a co-defendant of mine, a comrade of mine, locked up in 41 bis and connected by video conference. When we talk about truth, no one can deny that this investigation played a central role in the decision to lock Alfredo Cospito up in 41 bis. The minister of justice spoke about it in parliament, chief prosecutor Cantone himself spoke about it during a hearing.

This is a scandal not only because 41 bis is an international disgrace, a torture prison regime to which no one should be subjected. Above all, it is a scandal because we anarchists say things clearly. In this book, Which International?, you will not find a cabal of cryptic messages. The writings of anarchists are not pizzas! Nor will you find orders, because anarchists have no leaders and take orders from no one.

Books are not for giving orders, but for thinking for oneself. Books teach how to disobey orders. That is why they are so scary.

Moreover, this process generates some interesting contradictions. Consider the fact that I am not free to send this book, just as I am not free to send the newspaper “Vetriolo” to Alfredo in prison. This is simply absurd because it is clear that I do not hide in the seams of Which International? a razor blade, or a transceiver, or narcotics, nor did I layout the book in such a way that reading it according to a clever puzzle key might contain coded messages. Neither does the prosecution, to tell the truth, support that.

That these provisions are applied against our comrade should then make us reflect on three important considerations. The first, is that the way the antimafia-antiterrorism bandwagon thinks and operates is inspired by what we might call “paranoid thinking.” The second, is that these measures are all the more absurd to an anarchist. The third, is that in fact these measures have no precautionary reason, but aim at a single purpose: the annihilation of the prisoner.

This generates a short circuit with respect to our trial as well. How can Alfredo defend himself against a charge concerning his ideas and writings if he cannot read them? Clearly, only the prosecution papers are not enough, since these contain specially selected passages.

There are also even greater contradictions produced by the overall context. Evidently investigations such as this one fit into the context of war into which we have all been plunged. There is indeed a close connection between war and censorship. When a country is at war, there are things that cannot be said and there is information that cannot circulate. The 41 bis to Alfredo Cospito, Operation Sibilla, liberticidal laws against strikes and protests in prisons such as those contained in the former 1660 bill are to all intents and purposes expressions of war policies.

While this is an operational necessity, it also generates a contradiction: with what face does the Italian state demand sacrifices from workers, raise the cost of utility bills or the cost of fuel, claiming that these are sacrifices made necessary because we have to fight against autocracies, or against some perfidious Middle Eastern regime, and at the same time it tries books and newspapers and locks up political opponents in 41 bis? A state that tries us for our violent speech while exporting weapons to Israel and Ukraine.

On this ground the state is weak, and a trial like this can be an opportunity to nurture the struggle instead of repressing it. Today’s authoritarian turn is in the context of war measures against the internal enemy. But so much rattling of troops has served no purpose.

The Cospito case turned out to be a boomerang that came back in the faces of those who orchestrated it. They wanted to close the comrade’s mouth, and his ideas were never more widely disseminated. Publications of Alfredo’s writings multiplied. Which International? had three editions and seven reprints. There were dozens of demonstrations, marches, street clashes. Anarchism was so revitalized that new anarchist songs were even born, perhaps after half a century away. There have been–I read on one website–almost a hundred and twenty destructive direct actions in the world. The symbolic or civil disobedience actions, the banners, the writing on walls, the buckets of paint, the occupation of theaters or Amnesty headquarters or a radio station, those are counted in the thousands.

You are deluding yourself if you think that this can be stopped by shutting up a single comrade. You lie if you claim that all this was moved by the evil mind of a troublemaker, an instigator. Moreover, you got yourselves into this mess. Of course, if the ruling class of this country is made up of Delmastro and Donzelli, Manuela Comodi or Roberto Sparagna, Alfredo Cospito will look like a giant in comparison. And even today, in here, as the poet sang, the dwarves still demand censure against the scary giants.

I do not fear this trial because a trial against books and newspapers is a trial in which-even for the general public and not only for anarchists, for whom this is always true-the most honorable seat in which to sit is the defendant’s bench.

I do not fear this trial because in this trial the state is weak. What happened last October 10 is indeed significant: in my certainly undesirable trial experience I had never witnessed a hearing in which the defendants want to speak and the prosecutor seeks technical shortcuts to get a continuance.

What happened out here is also significant; the threat by the quaestor of Perugia to issue travel warrants for a demonstration in which – alas – nothing particularly confrontational happened, is certainly a sign of the times, it may be an expression in some way of a certain arrogance, but it is certainly above all an indication of all your weakness.

If only for one fact, which is that Alfredo’s mere presence–even if it is in the ghostly, phantasmal form of a videoconference link–represents a living contradiction to all those who would like to keep our comrade walled up alive.

I would conclude, therefore, with the obvious. Anarchism is not the product of a scholar or a philosopher, it is not the harvest of an intensive cultivator of brains, but it is a wild plant of class struggle. Those who act do not need to be instigated. Those who do so have matured from themselves the need to struggle. The irresistible instigation is that caused by the injustices of your society.

As we race with rapid strides toward nuclear war and helplessly witness the first automated genocide in history, it is precisely the answer to that question – Which international? – that is dramatically topical today. And it is not found in any book. Books only ask the questions.

If I am indicted I will do my worst to exacerbate these contradictions. I will try to use the “Vetriolo” trial as a forum to propagandize the ideas and theses expressed in that newspaper. Above all, I will do everything to turn this trial into an opportunity to sabotage 41 bis, to dialogue with Alfredo, to communicate with him.

I want Alfredo to know that the struggle he has carried out has moved mountains. Don’t let it bring you down. You are an example of consistency and courage. The road to Ithaca is fraught with terrible obstacles, but it is also full of wonderful adventures. We are waiting for you at home comrade.

Long live anarchy!

Michele Fabiani

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
F
m
T
$
z
x
N
S
Enter the code without spaces.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.