Intervention in solidarity w/ Alfredo Cospito

Via Act for freedom now!

(EN) On Friday, March 17th, at the launch of the presentation of the collective volume – tribute to the work of Altiero Spinelli (“a visionary and one of the great ‘fathers’ of European unification”) at the Italian Educational Institute in Patision – Athens (across the NTUA gate), a political intervention of solidarity with the comrade and hunger striker, since 20/10/22, Alfredo Cospito was held.

Video

Interrupting their civil celebration, in the presence of the ambassador of the Italian state Patrizia Falcinelli and the president of the European Movement of Italy Pier Virgilio Dastoli, the president of the Mediterranean Studies department of the University of the Aegean S. Dalis, the vice president of the European Parliament D. Papadimoulis and the former MEP K. Botopoulou, as well as other big business exploiters and their henchmen who were smitten before the elections in the institutional salons, such as the former minister and current MP G. Katrougalos, we shaked for a while the image of their superiority in their field.

The hypocritical “sensitivity” of Europe’s bourgeois democratic politicians and scholars for rights and federalism (of the economies and the capital), in the media image of 2016, when Renzi, Merkel and Hollande paid tribute to Spinelli’s grave (in favor of the foundations of European unity), was forced to be silent in order to hear the speech of the anarchist hunger striker Alfredo Cospito and the fight against 41bis and against the prison.Slogans were heard, flyers were thrown and we made clear to the present representatives of the former government that we do not forget the passing of the new Penal Code and the way it opened for the condition of incarceration here. Our struggles recognize no borders.



The King was, is and will be naked: we have no illusions. The state and its employees murder Alfredo Cospito. That was their goal from the beginning. And the last grains of sand in the hourglass of our comrades life build our own complicity in his struggle and shake the foundations of the King’s palaces.

Here is the text that was read:

Today, in this room, you will listen to people talking about how great our democracy is, how good is the state based on it. You will listen to people talking about Altiero Spinelli and his contribution to the creation of the European Union. Spinelli was imprisoned during the Italian Fascist regime, but was able to write and express his opinion from prison. Today, in democratic Italy, political prisoners are tortured and silenced for their ideas. We are talking about comrade Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike for 5 months in order to fight against the 41bis prison regime, which is a form of legalized torture. He cannot read, he cannot have any form of communication, he cannot see the sky or touch the grass. He cannot keep a picture of his parents inside the small cell where he is confined, he can only see 4 people an hour per day. Against this form of torture and, against this “non-life”, Alfredo chooses to fight until his last breath with the only weapon he has, his body. Thanks to his courage and determination, many comrades are joining the fight against 41bis and against the prison. This is why we are also here.

In an attempt to connect the italian with the greek state and the consequences of the policies of local and international capital, it is worth mentioning the following: Alfredo Cospito was accused and convicted for claiming responsibility for the attack against the CEO of the company Ansaldo Nucleare, in 2012 in Genoa. The first (of the three different contractors for different sections of the central axis Athens-Thessaloniki-Promahonas) contract of 2007 concerned the equipping of the trains with the ETCS system: the equipment was assigned to the italian company Ansaldo (subsequently acquired by the japanese colossus Hitachi ) with an initial budget of 25 million euros. The project, after repeated delays and extensions, was finally completed in mid-2018 and after two impairments of physical object and money had been imposed on the contract, as Ansaldo did not meet its contractual obligations. After pains and sufferings, that is, the italian company equips 88 against 114 trains that it had undertaken for 21 million euros. However, these systems also remain inactive as they are assembled upon completion of the installation and on the lines. As a result, we mourn today dozens of dead people in the premeditated murder in Tempi.

In simple words, Ansaldo (Nucleare) is essentially co-responsible for the fatal equipment deficiencies of the European ETCS system of the greek railway network which led, among other things, to the capitalist and state murder in Tempi.

Who is the criminal after all? How much our lives really worth? How much do we have to shout to say the obvious: That, for the states and the capital we are expendable objects either in the structures of confinement or outside of them?

The struggle of the anarchist Alfredo Cospito and those of all free people around the world demonstrate the hypocrisy of the world’s masters and claim another world for humanity. A world where respect on dignity, solidarity and freedom are not words on dusty parchments but a way of life.

Open Assembly in Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito