fr/it Feu à toutes les prisons !

La prison... On en a tous vaguement une idée, un reportage à la TV, un énième assassinat de l’administration pénitentiaire à la rubrique faits divers des journaux du jour, de brèves indignations à peu de frais par-ci par-là. On en entend tous parler, et on fait comme si cela n’existait pas. Comme si chaque jour des dizaines de milliers d’entre-nous n’étaient pas les otages de l’État, seuls dans leurs périples carcéraux individuels, isolés de tous et réprimés en silence. Pourtant nous sommes tant à avoir un frère, une amie, un cousin en taule, à visiter un proche incarcéré au parloir, nous sommes tant à finir par trouver cela banal. Un petit séjour en taule, après tout, on est pas mal à y avoir gouté, une fois, deux fois, trois fois ou plus, de près ou de loin, dans les faits ou par procuration.

Enfermer des êtres humains dans des cages de quelques mètres carrés pendant des mois ou des années, annihiler toute volonté en eux, les presser comme des citrons, les briser, les empêcher d’aimer, les harceler, les droguer, les frapper, les juger, les tuer, les traiter comme personne n’ose traiter de la merde et les soumettre à un travail de forçat ; la taule, c’est la barbarie dans toute sa banalité, c’est le règne total d’une poignée de sadiques et de petits exécutants obéissants. C’est le dernier souffle d’une balle qui vient se loger droit dans notre tête pendant que tout le monde regarde ailleurs, trop préoccupé par sa propre misère. C’est la manière par laquelle ce monde se venge contre ton anormalité ou contre la concurrence. C’est une des manières par lesquelles ce monde force la paix.

La prison a au moins un mérite, avec elle les choses sont claires : pas de bla-bla ou presque, une société qui a besoin de prisons pour se maintenir est une société qui a déclaré la guerre à une partie d’elle-même. Une société qui s’enorgueillit de gérer avec tant de violence ces usines de mort est une société qui offre son cou à la guillotine de la révolte, qui justifie la nécessité de sa destruction. Ils auront beau réformer les prisons en long et en large, plaquer les cellules d’or, les climatiser ou raccourcir la taille des matraques, les coups feront toujours aussi mal et la prison restera le même problème qu’elle aura toujours été. C’est l’audace de la liberté qui importe, pas la lâcheté du statu quo de l’aménagement de la contrainte.

Une prison acceptable est une prison qui brûle.

On parle déjà d’une trentaine de morts en détention depuis le début de l’année. On ose encore nous parler de suicides et d’accidents... On ose insinuer qu’il est anodin de se pendre dans une prison, qu’il est anodin de mourir « accidentellement » sous les coups des matons ou d’autres détenus. On nous parle de « suicides » pour faire croire que ce n’est pas l’Administration Pénitentiaire et l’État qui tuent. Mais nous affirmons que chaque mort en prison est un assassinat de l’Administration Pénitentiaire et de l’État. Considérer les choses autrement, c’est affirmer que les conditions de vie du dehors et du dedans sont les mêmes. C’est affirmer que la prison n’existe pas. Et pourtant le dedans et le dehors ne se différencient que par leur degré d’intensité. La prison n’est rien d’autre que le reflet exagéré de cette société qui se regarde dans un miroir grossissant.

Tout est pire que dehors en prison, et pourtant, tout est tellement pareil que dehors...

La même merde, les mêmes mécanismes autoritaires, la même domination, la même violence inhérente à la paix sociale, le même fichage, les mêmes rapports dégueulasses entre les gens, qu’ils soient économiques ou sociaux.

Il est si difficile de parler sereinement de la prison. Il est si difficile de ne pas se laisser plomber par l’atmosphère poisseuse qu’elle disperse autour de nos vies. Mais ce ne sont pas des larmes qui en viendront à bout, au contraire, on ne peut que se noyer avec des larmes. L’indignation, elle, n’a jamais fait tomber un seul mur, et l’on ne viendra jamais à bout de la prison par le biais du Droit ou de la Loi, puisque c’est de leurs pierres qu’elle est construite.

Dans cette société qui a besoin d’enfermer : prisons, psychiatrie, centres de rétention, gardes-à-vue, internats, écoles, maisons de retraite, camps humanitaires, usines, hôpitaux, centres éducatifs fermés, barres d’immeubles, établissements de réinsertion scolaire etc. Dans cette société où certains font le choix de devenir mâtons, juges ou flics, notre choix est clair : Feu à toutes les prisons. Feu à l’Etat.

Les prisons doivent être détruites une par une, pierre par pierre, maton par maton, juge par juge.
Détruisons les prisons en détruisant la société, parce qu’une société qui a besoin d’enfermer et d’humilier est elle-même une prison.
Détruisons les prisons avec rage et joie.
[Affiche trouvée sur les murs de plusieurs villes, juin 2011]

http://www.non-fides.fr/?Affiche-Feu-a-toutes-les-prisons


Francia - Fuoco a tutte le prigioni [manifesto]
Manifesto comparso sui muri di alcune città francesi del giugno 2011

da http://non-fides.fr/?Affiche-Feu-a-toutes-les-prisons

Fuoco a tutte le prigioni!


La prigione… Tutti abbiamo una vaga idea di cosa sia: un reportage visto alla TV, l’ennesimo assassinio da parte dell’amministrazione penitenziaria che leggiamo nella cronaca del giornale, qualche breve indignazione poco impegnativa, ogni tanto… Tutti ne sentiamo parlare, ma facciamo come se non esistesse. Come se decine di migliaia di noi non fossero, ogni giorno, ostaggi dello Stato, soli nelle loro odissee carcerali individuali, isolati da tutti e repressi in silenzio. Eppure siamo in molti ad avere un fratello, un amico, un cugino in prigione, ad andare ai colloqui con una persona cara incarcerata, siamo in molti a finire per trovare tutto ciò banale. Un piccolo soggiorno in galera, dopo tutto, non siamo pochi ad averlo provato, una volta, due volte, tre volte o ancora di più, da vicino o da lontano, direttamente o per procura.

Rinchiudere degli esseri umani in gabbie di qualche metro quadrato per mesi o anni, annichilire ogni loro volontà, spremerli come limoni, distruggerli, impedire loro di amare, perseguitarli, drogarli, picchiarli, giudicarli, ucciderli, trattarli come nessuno oserebbe trattare una merda e sottometterli ad un lavoro forzato; la galera è la barbarie in tutta la sua banalità, è il dominio totale di una manciata di sadici e di piccolo esecutori obbedienti. È l’ultimo soffio di una pallottola che viene a piazzarsi dritta nella nostra testa, mentre tutti guardano altrove, troppo preoccupati per i cazzi propri. È il modo in cui il mondo si vendica della tua anormalità o della concorrenza. È uno dei metodi attraverso i quali questo mondo impone la pace.

La prigione ha almeno un merito, con lei le cose sono chiare: niente chiacchiere, o quasi; una società che ha bisogno della prigione per sopravvivere è una società che ha dichiarato guerra ad una parte di sé stessa. Una società che si insuperbisce di gestire con tanta violenza queste fabbriche di morte è una società che porge il proprio collo alla ghigliottina della rivolta, che giustifica la necessità della propria distruzione. Potranno anche riformare le prigioni da cima a fondo, piastrellare d’oro le celle e metterci il climatizzatore, fare dei manganelli più corti, ma i colpi faranno sempre male allo stesso modo e la prigione resterà lo stesso problema che è da sempre. Quello che conta è l’audacia della libertà, non la vigliaccheria dello status quo della riforma della costrizione.

Una prigione accettabile è una prigione che brucia.

Si parla già di una trentina di morti nelle carceri a partire dall’inizio dell’anno [in Francia, NdT]. Hanno ancora il coraggio di parlarci di suicidi e di incidenti… Hanno ancora il coraggio di insinuare che è cosa anodina impiccarsi in una prigione, che è cosa anodina morire “accidentalmente” sotto i colpi dei secondini o di altri detenuti. Ci parlano di “suicidi” per far credere che non sono l’Amministrazione Penale e lo Stato che uccidono. Ma noi sosteniamo che ogni morte in prigione è un omicidio dell’Amministrazione Penale e dello Stato. Considerare le cose diversamente vuol dire sostenere che le condizioni di vita fuori e dentro sono le stesse. È sostenere che la prigione non esiste. Eppure il dentro e il fuori si differenziano solo per il loro grado di intensità. La prigione non è altro che il riflesso esagerato di questa società che si guarda in uno specchio che ingrandisce.

In prigione, tutto è peggio che fuori, eppure tutto è talmente uguale a fuori…

La stessa merda, gli stessi meccanismi autoritari, la stessa dominazione, la stessa violenza inerente alla pace sociale, la stessa schedatura, gli stessi rapporti schifosi fra le persone, che essi siano economici o sociali.

È difficile parlare serenamente della prigione. È difficile non scivolare nell’atmosfera appiccicosa che essa sparge intorno alle nostre vite. Ma non sono le lacrime che la faranno finita con il carcere, al contrario le lacrime servono solo per affogarci. L’indignazione non ha mai fatto cadere un solo muro e non la faremo mai finita con la prigione attraverso il Diritto o la Legge, perché è con le loro pietre che essa è costruita.

In questa società che ha bisogno di rinchiudere: prigioni, psichiatria, centri per clandestini, fermo di polizia, collegi, scuole, case di riposo, campi umanitari, fabbriche, ospedali, centri educativi, istituti di reinserimento scolastico, palazzoni… In questa società in cui alcuni fanno la scelta di diventare secondini, giudici o sbirri, la nostra scelta è chiara: fuoco a tutte le prigioni. Fuoco allo Stato.

Le prigioni devono essere distrutte una per una, pietra per pietra, secondino per secondino, giudice per giudice.

Distruggiamo le prigioni, distruggiamo la società, perché una società che ha bisogno di rinchiudere ed umiliare è essa stessa una prigione.
Distruggiamo le prigioni con rabbia e gioia.

http://informa-azione.info/francia_fuoco_a_tutte_le_prigioni_manifesto

Krieg, Katastrophe, Demokratie, Gefängnis – Wir wollen die Revolution

Ein Flyer, der im April auf den Strassen von Brüssel verteilt wurde. Publiziert wurde er auch in der 17. Ausgabe von Hors Service/Buiten Dienst, eine dreiwöchige französisch/niederländische anarchistische Zeitschrift aus Belgien. Infos: journalhorsservice.blogspot.com + krantbuitendienst.blogspot.com

In einer Zeit in der die Worte anscheinend ihre Bedeutung verlieren, wo die Sprache der Macht versucht all unsere Debatten zu penetrieren, denken wir, ist es sogar noch unumgänglicher, eine klare Sprache zu sprechen. Lasst uns aufhören, wie die Papageien nachzuplappern, das was die Zeitungen schreiben, das was das Fernsehen uns zeigt, das was die Mächtigen uns weis machen wollen. Die Frage ist nicht zu jedem Preis im Konsens zu sein, noch alle zu konvertieren, sondern es geht darum mit unseren Mündern zu sprechen, sowie mit unseren Worten und aus unseren Schmerzen und mit unseren Hoffnungen.

DER KRIEG ODER… DIE REVOLUTION

Der Beginn des NATO-Bombardements gegen die Gadaffi – treuen Kräfte in Libyen hat einen fatalen Schritt markiert. Das was am Anfang ohne jeden Zweifel ein bewaffneter Aufstand eines bedeutenden Teils der Bevölkerung gegen das herrschende Regime war, verwandelt sich langsam aber sicher in einen militärischen Krieg. Neben den selbst – organisierten Kräften des Widerstandes, die alle möglichen Autoritäten als ‚irregulär’ bezeichnen, scheint der Aufstand in Libyen zu einem Konflikt von entgegen gesetzten Armeen degeneriert zu sein. Und es ist kein Zufall, dass die ’Irregulären’ von dort; der ’offiziellen Opposition’ gegenüber, die die Hierarchien, Ränge und Kommandostrukturen von Gadaffis Armee kopierten, immer sehr misstrauisch waren. Tatsächlich hat die Militarisierung des Konfliktes die Möglichkeit eines radikalen Umsturzes der libyschen Gesellschaft begraben. Neue Uniformen, neue Führer und neue Autoritäten stellen für jene eine Hürde dar, die mit anderen gesellschaftlichen Beziehungen experimentieren wollen, den Beziehungen der Solidarität und der Gegenseitigkeit, der Selbst-Organisierung des Soziallebens zwischen den Menschen selbst, anstelle eines neuen Regimes, neuen staatlichen Strukturen, neuen Führern und neuen Privilegien.

In der heutigen Situation in Libyen geht es darum, die Aufständischen nach allen Möglichkeiten zu unterstützen, die gekämpft haben und die in der Zukunft für eine tiefgehende Veränderung der Gesellschaft kämpfen. So wie ein libyscher anarchistischer Gefährte gesagt hat, es geht darum die Erpressung der Macht zu verweigern – sei es Gadaffi, die offizielle Opposition oder die NATO, die die Möglichkeit der sozialen Revolution ersticken wollen, indem sie alles in Richtung eines militärischen Krieges bewegen. Lasst uns diejenigen niemals vergessen, die gestorben sind, während sie für die Freiheit gekämpft haben und die nur indem sie ihrer Stärke vertrauten, ein monströses Regime herausgefordert haben und dabei ihre Leben aufs Spiel setzten.

KATASTROPHE… ODER REVOLUTION

Das was in Japan passierte, ist kein natürliches Desaster sondern eine soziale Katastrophe. Das was in den japanischen Kernkraftwerken passiert ist, ist kein unglücklicher Unfall, sondern eine traurige Konsequenz einer Welt voller Industrien, die ihr Gift herauskotzen, von überall verteilten Kernkraftwerken, die eine schwere und tragische Hypothek auf das Leben und die Freiheit auf der Erde aufgenommen haben, einer Wirtschaft, die den Planeten und den menschlichen Geist vergiftet, durch den Gehorsam auf der Suche nach mehr Profit für die Reichen und Mächtigen.

In Japan sind gerade ganze Regionen eingekreist und militarisiert. Nach der Konstruktion von Kernkraftwerken, nachdem die Interessen der kapitalistischen Wirtschaft vor alles andere gestellt wurden, präsentiert sich der japanische Staat als der einzige Akteur, der die Situation retten kann, für die Verwaltung des Desasters und der ‚Hilfe für die Menschen’. Indem sie in den zerstörten Gebieten der Insel ein Militärregime installieren, indem sie ein wissenschaftliches Kontrollregime errichten, das die Bewohner rund um die von Strahlung kontaminierten Zonen zu einfachen Nummern macht, zu Radioaktivitätsquoten oder noch schlimmer zu Versuchskaninchen, verstärkt der Staat seinen Einfluss auf die Bevölkerung. Und von der sehr realen nuklearen Bedrohung verängstigt, eilt die Bevölkerung in die Hände ihres Retters…
Aber die Ursache eines Problems kann nicht zur selben Zeit seine Lösung sein; wenn die Ursache weiter existiert, vervielfältigt sich das Problem. Und das Problem sind nicht die natürlichen Desaster, sondern die Welt der Industrien und der Kernkraftwerke, der unbewohnbaren Metropolen und der verwüsteten Landgegenden. Entweder wir lassen es zu, dass die permanente Katastrophe in dieser Welt weitergeführt wird, oder wir verändern den Weg auf radikale Weise indem wir die Wirtschaft entthronen und seinen König, das Geld, indem wir aufhören den Wissenschaftlern und Experten zu glauben um Lösungen für Probleme zu finden, die sie selbst erschaffen haben und dabei neue Wege des Zusammenlebens erfinden. Es gibt entweder die Katastrophe dieser Welt voller Grauen, oder die soziale Revolution.

DIE DEMOKRATIE ODER… DIE REVOLUTION

Nach dem Siegesgeschrei das von Ägypten und Tunesien kam, Geschrei das unsere Medien in eine Hommage an die westliche Demokratie verwandelte, steht eine neue Ordnung kurz davor sich aufzuzwingen. Ägyptische Truppen schiessen erneut auf die Massen in Revolte, tunesische Gefängnisse füllen sich mit Aufständischen, die für viel mehr kämpften, als einfach nur für einen Regimewechsel, verschiedenste politische und religiöse Erpresser machten alles, um zu versuchen die Wut zu rekuperieren und kanalisieren in Richtung von widerlichen Nationalismen und unterdrückenden Religionen. Aber trotz der wachsenden Repression gehen die Kämpfe weiter. Während in Ägypten die wilden Streiks gegen die alten und neuen Bosse weitergehen, verbleiben auch noch heute ganze Regionen von Tunesien aus der Reichweite der Klauen des tunesischen Staates, die sich im Angesicht ihrer materiellen Bedürfnisse selbst organisieren, mittels der Umsetzung der Praxis der Gegenseitigkeit und der Solidarität anstelle der kapitalistischen Konkurrenz, dem Zurückkämpfen der Dorfpolizisten, der politischen Chefs und Richter, die als Maßnahmen zum Ausdruck der Erstickung der Freiheit identifizierbar sind.

Alles wird versucht um die Menschen vergessen zu lassen, dass das Potential besteht jenseits der Alternative zwischen Diktatur und Demokratie, dass es möglich ist mit neuen Formen des Zusammenlebens zu experimentieren, die nicht vom Staat geleitet werden, seien sie gewählt oder direkt aufgezwungen. Dass andere Möglichkeiten zur Wahl stehen, als sich einer grimmigen Unterdrückung zu unterwerfen, wie in einem Grossteil der Welt Realität und einen sozialen Frieden zwischen Ausgebeuteten und Ausbeutern zu respektieren und sich mit Brotkrumen zufrieden zu stellen, wie das hier oft so passiert.

Alles wird versucht, um zu vergessen zu machen, was die Mächtigen von überall, demokratisch oder diktatorisch, bösartig oder nett, grimmig oder menschlich, am meisten fürchten: eine soziale Revolution, die den Ursachen der Ausbeutung und der Unterdrückung ein Ende bereitet.

DAS GEFÄNGNIS ODER… DIE REVOLUTION

Für jene die sich entschlossen haben, sich auf den Weg des Kampfes für die Freiheit zu machen, für die wirkliche Freiheit, haben ihre Feinde am Ende nur zwei Antworten: Kugeln oder Gefängnis. Vor kurzem wurden einige anarchistische Gefährten aus Italien von der Repression getroffen. Fünf Gefährten aus Bologna werden nun im Gefängnis festgehalten, 60 Häuser wurden über Italien verteilt durchsucht. Angeklagt mit ’organisiertem Verbrechen’, wurden sie vom italienischen Staat eingesperrt, in der Hoffnung so die Kämpfe gegen die Abschiebelager durch Klandestine, die sich durch Angriffe auf die Verantwortlichen der Abschiebemaschinerie ausdrücken; ihre Kämpfe in Solidarität mit den Aufständischen von der anderen Seite des Mittelmeeres, durch die Angriffe auf die italienischen Unternehmen, die durch das Regime von Gaddaffi über den Import von Gas und Erdöl und dem Export von Waffen, die dazu dienen die Revolten zu unterdrücken (dieselben Unternehmen sind im übrigen auch Kandidaten für die Konstruktionen von Kernkraftwerken in Italien und die auch von Widerstand begleitet werden); ihre unnachgiebige Wahl für die Revolte im Ziel auf all die Strukturen der Herrschaft.

Wenn wir von ihnen sprechen, dann ist das weil wir uns in ihren Kämpfen wieder erkennen, weil wir sie mit ihnen teilen, auf der anderen Seite der Grenze das Verlangen der Freiheit das sie durch ihren Kampf in Worten und in Handlungen, entzündeten. Kein Gefängnis kann unseren Kampf für die Freiheit und unsere Solidarität mit den italienischen Gefährten jemals stoppen, sowie mit den eingesperrten Gefährten in anderen Ländern der Welt, es geht darum weiter zu machen, immer weiter zu machen mit der Hoffnung im Herzen und den geballten Fäusten – um die Herrschaft zu unterhöhlen.

LASST UNS DAS PULVERFASS ENTZÜNDEN.
MÖGE DER WIND DER FREIHEIT WEHEN, MÖGE SICH DER STURM DES AUFSTANDES ENTFACHEN.

Anarchisten

Übersetung von Hors Service – Brüssel

http://www.abc-berlin.net/krieg-katastrophe-demokratie-gefangnis-wir-wollen-die-revolution

War, Catastrophe, Democracy, Prison – We Want Revolution

Translated from www.finimondo.org

Text of a leaflet distributed in Brussels (Belgium) in April 2011.

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In a time when words seem to lose their meaning, when the language of power tries to penetrate all our conversations, we think it is even more indispensable to make an effort in order to speak clearly. Let’s stop parroting what the newspapers say, television shows and the powerful want us to believe. The point is neither to agree at all costs nor to convert everything, but it is to try to speak with our mouth, our words, our pains and our hopes.

War… or revolution

The beginning of NATO bombardments against the forces loyal to Gaddafi in Libya marked a fatal step. At the beginning, what was undoubtedly an armed insurrection of a significant part of the population against the regime, is slowly transforming into a military war. Apart from some self-organized forms of resistance, which all kinds of authority define as ‘irregular’, the insurrection in Libya seems to have degenerated in a conflict between opposing armies. And it is not by chance that the ‘irregulars’ down there have always been very suspicious towards the ‘official opposition’, which has copied the hierarchies, grades and structures of command of the Gaddafi’s army. As a matter of fact, the militarization of the conflict has buried the possibility of a radical overturning of Libyan society. New uniforms, new leaders and new authorities constitute an obstacle to those who want to experiment other social relationships, relationships of solidarity and reciprocity, self-organization of social life between people instead of a new regime, new social structures, new leaders and new privileges. Today in Libya the question is to support in all possible ways the insurgents who have struggled and who will struggle again in the future for a deep change of society. As a Libyan anarchist comrade said, the question is to refuse power’s blackmail – be it Gaddafi, the official opposition or NATO – which intends to suffocate the possibility of social revolution by pushing towards a merely military war. Let’s never forget those who have died while struggling for freedom and have challenged a monstrous regime by relying on their strength only, putting their life at risk.

Catastrophe… or revolution

What happened in Japan is not a natural disaster but a social catastrophe. What happened in Japanese nuclear plants is not a disgraceful incident but the sad consequence of a world full of industries that vomit poison., of nuclear plants scattered everywhere, which have heavily and tragically mortgaged life and freedom on the earth, of an economy that poisons the planet and human minds, by obeying only to the quest for more profit for the powerful and the rich. Entire regions in Japan are currently encircled and militarised. After building nuclear plants and putting the interests of capitalist economy ahead of everything else, the Japanese State now presents itself as the sole actor able to sort the situation out, to manage the disaster and to ‘help people’. By implementing a military regime in the devastated areas of the island and a regime of scientific control that reduces the inhabitants of the contaminated areas to simple numbers, radioactivity rates or guinea pigs, the State is strengthening its grip on the population. Frightened by the even too real nuclear threat, people are running towards their saviour… But the cause of a problem cannot be at the same time its solution; if the cause continues to exist, the problems grows. And the problem is not so much natural disasters but this world of industries and nuclear plants, metropolis where one cannot live and devastated countryside. The point is either to continue to make the catastrophe permanent in this world or radically change road, dethrone economy and its king the money, stop believing scientists and experts in order to find solutions to problems they themselves created, and invent new ways of living together. Either the catastrophe of this world full of horrors or social revolution.

Democracy… or revolution

After the cries of victory coming from Egypt and Tunisia, cries that our media transformed into a homage to western democracy, a new order is about to impose itself. Egyptian troops are once again shooting at the crowds in revolt, Tunisian jails are filling up with insurgents who struggled for much more than a simple change of regime, various political and religious rackets are doing their best to recuperate and channel anger into filthy nationalisms and oppressing religions. But, in spite of growing repression, fights keep on. While in Egypt wild strikes take place continuously against old and new bosses, entire areas in Tunisia are still today out of the clutches of the new State and self-organize themselves to face material needs, by putting into practice reciprocal solidarity instead of capitalist competition, by pushing back from villages cops, political leaders and judges, identified as the expression of the suffocation of freedom.

Everything is being tried in order to make people forget that there exist other possibilities beyond the alternative between dictatorship and democracy; that it is possible to experiment new ways of living together which are not run by the State, be it elected or imposed; that there exist other possible choices rather than be subjected to ferocious exploitation like in most parts of the world, or respect social peace between exploited and exploiters and be content with crumbs as often happens here. Everything is being tried to make people forget what the powerful of everywhere, be them democratic or dictatorial, rude or gentle, ferocious or human, fear most: a social revolution which puts an end to the causes of exploitation and oppression.

Prison… or revolution

For those who choose to struggle for freedom, real freedom, in the end there are only two answers from their enemies: bullets or prison. Recently some Italian anarchists were hit once again by repression. Five comrades in Bologna are now being held in prison and sixty houses were searched all over Italy. Charged with ‘organized crime’, they are imprisoned by the State, which hopes to stop the struggles against migrants detention centres and the attacks against the responsible for the machinery of deportation; the solidarity with the insurgents on the other side of the Mediterranean and against the Italian companies that profit form Gaddafi’s regime to import gas and oil and export weapons useful to suppress revolts (after all the same companies are keen to build nuclear plants in Italy, which also provokes resistance); the comrades’ irreducible choice for revolt and their attacks against the structures of dominion.

If we talk about them it is because we recognize ourselves in those struggles and because we share, beyond borders, their desire for freedom which pushes them to struggle by words and deeds. No prison will ever stop our struggle for freedom. Solidarity with the Italian comrades and with the comrades imprisoned in other countries of the world consists in continuing, always continuing to attack dominion, with hope in our hearts and clenched fits.

Let’s give fire to the powder keg. May the wind of freedom blow, may the tempest of insurrection rage.

Anarchists

Reclaim Your Mind : Manifesto – An Urgent Message for all those who have or are in danger of being labelled mentally ill

325 presents this anonymous contribution from the archive of 2003, previously lost when the last website 325collective.com went down. Edited for 2011. Warm respect for all those who struggle everyday with the system which keeps us down, miserable and crazy. Keep your heads up and live good!

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Urgent message for all those who have or are in danger of being labelled mentally ill

Selling cures for the problems they created
It is well known that depression has been on a steady rise in the past few decades. This increase apparently isn’t about to stop since the World Health Organization (WHO) recently predicted that, by 2020, depression would be the second most prevalent health problem in the world, just below heart disease, and offered as an explanation that this was due to a previous underestimation of the number of people suffering from this “illness”.

Couldn’t the increasing feeling of emptiness and worthlessness characteristic of depression be related to the society we live in, at a time when people lose themselves in consumption and mass entertainment to avoid thinking about their miserable life, their economic survival or the ongoing destruction of the planet? While the “experts” paid by pharmacology corporations will invariably answer that depression is a brain disorder due to a “chemical imbalance”, the result of some faulty genes they have yet to identity, we cannot help to wonder how this could not be environmental considering there was no such thing as depression in Africa before colonization?

Depression has widely been touted as endemic to the 20-something generation. Severe depression is 10 times more prevalent today than it was 50 years ago, and it strikes a full decade earlier in life on average than it did a generation ago. Such feelings and behaviours testify to frustration and despair that have nowhere to go when the social landscape is so frozen. Disaffection or even opposition are quickly marketed into sellable style images; alienation as fashion. Meanwhile suicide, perhaps the ultimate regression, has been on a steady rise for several decades.
- John Zerzan

At best depression is considered as a necessary side-effect of “progress” — just like civilian murders are a “collateral damage” of war — but “experts” always affirm that more scientific research is the only solution to the problem. Until these mythical genes have been found and we can all live in the promised techno-virtual “paradise” as genetically-modified human beings, the pharmacology industry is of course delighted to sell drugs to help humanity deal with its “chemical imbalances”, just like we are sold bottled water to “solve” the problem of water pollution.

A brave new world?
Unfortunately if they discover a perfect drug to remove all the symptoms of depression and stress, they won’t stop here. As it is becoming increasingly clear, their interest is not happiness and well-being of the whole of humanity, as they promise, but “progress” and the on-going technological race. Such a drug would in reality be an opportunity to increase the demands of society and the stress- and depression-inducing effects of our environment. Our dependency on drugs will force in turn others to use them to be able to compete and survive.

Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed, modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect, antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual’s internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.
- Theodore Kaczynski

While until recently society had to adapt to the limits of human beings, the situation has been reversed and it’s now human beings who have to adapt to society. Is that their idea of a “perfect world”? And more importantly, is that yours?

Since this essential question never generates any debate in mainstream media, it seems that pharmacology corporations have already answered for us. Using the false promises of consumerism — “our product will solve all your problems and make you feel fulfilled just like these idealized images you see on our ads” — the sales of anti-depressants has increased by 800% in the 90′s alone. They now claim that one american out of five, a market of over 50 millions people, “needs a cure urgently”. Is it urgent because people are finally waking up and they need to be plugged back into the Matrix of illusion before they see the desert of the real world they live in?

The myth of permanent happiness
One effect of the excessive marketing from the pharmacology industry, and the many other industries promoting “health” as a value, is the creation of an unique ideal that everyone is supposed to cling to. These “fullfilled” consumers we see on ads have become, consciously or unconsciously, some kind of role models for most of us. They make us believe that permanent happiness is possible, the biggest myth of them all.

Suffering is a misunderstanding. It exists. It’s real. I can call it a misunderstanding, but I can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist, or will ever cease to exist… There are times I — I am very frightened. Any happiness seems trivial. And yet, I wonder if it isn’t all a misunderstanding — this grasping after happiness, this fear of pain… If instead of fearing it and running from it, one could get through it, go beyond it. I don’t know how to say it. But I believe that the reality of pain is not pain. If you can endure it all the way.
- Ursula Le Guin

Human beings, like any conscious organisms, are dualistic by nature. We can’t know the sweet without knowing the sour. We can’t experience happiness without experiencing sadness. With our attempt to eliminate sadness, with our obsession for positivism, we have only found emotional death. This is the way someone suffering from depression feels. In fact, it could be argued that a depressive person is different from a “normal” person only in her awareness of the poverty of her emotional life. Too afraid of terror, we have become unable to feel joy. To be able to go beyond that, pain should be embraced like any other feelings.

Chagrin, shame, fear, terror, anger are transient madness.
- Benjamin Rush, father of American psychiatry

Individuals labelled with manic-depression (bipolar disorder), on the other hand, experience both states intensely. While mania is accepted and even promoted by our society (think about shopping sprees), the depressive episodes are frowned upon. Take a minute and ask yourself: is this intensity necessarily bad for the person or is it a problem only because it doesn’t fit in the myth of permanent happiness promoted by modern society? Yes, manic-depression cause suffering and makes it difficult to live a “normal” life, but isn’t it also a way to experience life more deeply?

Normality vs. diversity
What we observe is that, while some problems such as depression and stress seem to be the result of our decadent mental landscape, other states of mind have become a problem only because they don’t fit within the grand schemes of civilization, where normality makes it easier to enforce “order”. They use cultural differences for marketing purpose but in the end everyone is supposed to buy the same products and have the same desires: a stable income, an happy family, a nice house, a perfectly-sized body, a great confidence. Those who can afford it have “choices”, but they are mostly limited to different tastes, such as the color of their car.

Yet diversity is essential for the survival of any eco-system. If nature has survived until our “conquest”, it’s because of this biological diversity. If the climate or environment changed, some species would die but others would survive, making it possible for evolution to continue. When civilization will have reduced cows to one “perfect” race, it will only require one virus to kill them all.

What interests us most though is diversity amongst human beings. We see that society doesn’t support this simply by the way public schools work: all children have to follow the same subjects, regardless of their interests, and even if at the end of compulsory school they can “choose” between different careers, this is because of the needs of the job marketplace only. As a result a lot of teenagers finish school alienated from their initial aspirations and struggle to find a job which interests them.

Disorders as differences
Let’s now look at some other widespread “mental illnesses” from the point of view that they are more a difference, part of the diversity of any ecosystem, than a disorder:

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a particularly sad example of the world we live in: many children are unable to stay all day long in these prisons called “schools” because they have too much energy and creativity. “Concerned” about their future in this society, influenced by psychiatrists, their parents feed them with Ritalin, sometimes since the age of 4, to numb them down and kill their flame. They fit again in the illusion of normality, but does that makes them happier? Schizophrenia is often mentioned when talking about mental illnesses for it can be deeply disturbing and very long. To understand this “illness” we should take a look at “primitive” cultures: in all of them, we can find shamans who had the gift to travel on the “other world” and heal people. The initiation was involuntary (although young shamans could be identified early by their tribes) and required several deeply disturbing years until the shaman was able to master his or her skills. What’s interesting is that the effects of this initiation are extremely similar to the “symptoms” of schizophrenia. Indeed some primitive tribes were fooled by western psychiatrists that their future shaman was “schizophrenic” and had to be medicated. Unfortunately it appears that anti-psychotic drugs prevent the process to be finished, in such a way that the individual gets lost in the void between the two worlds.

People are increasingly put under the label of Asperger’s syndrome or highly-functioning autism. Individuals diagnosed with this “disorder” usually have a high IQ and no impairment other than a difficulty to interact and communicate with others. We suggest that their isolation and obsessive thinking may set them apart and make communication more difficult (or less meaningful) as they are not on the same wavelength as others. That doesn’t have to be a disadvantage though: some psychiatrists have in fact recently “back-diagnosed” Newton and Einstein with Asperger’s syndrome. The question is: would these two geniuses have delivered their wisdom if they had been labelled as autistic and medicated in their youth?

Social anxiety is also on the rise. Apart from the fact it’s easy to become self-conscious about our behavior and look when we live in a society which judge everyone on their appearance, it’s worth mentionning that amongst all animals a percentage of them are naturally shy. Shy animals have greater chances of survival since their fears put them less at risk. For human beings, shyness may make it more difficult to be part of society but it’s also a great opportunity to develop inner capabilities that others, too busy socializing, don’t have the time to care about.

What we observe is that most of the pain felt by “mentally ill” individuals is caused more by a rejection of society than by the “illness” itself. Alienation, loneliness, homelessness, low self-esteem are all the destructive results of a society which doesn’t tolerate differences. Furthmore, the belief that there is something “wrong” that has to be “corrected” (or at least repressed) can only alienate people from themselves and make them feel miserable and worthless. Indeed almost all of these “illnesses” are usually coupled with depression.

Our society tends to regard as a “sickness” any mode of thought or behavior that is inconvenient for the system, and this is plausible because when an individual doesn’t fit into the system it causes pain to the individual as well as problems for the system. Thus the manipulation of an individual to adjust him to the system is seen as a “cure” for a “sickness” and therefore as good.
- Theodore Kaczynski

Healing or repression?
All this makes us wonder if psychiatrists and psychologists are really interested in healing or if their role is to keep the illusion of “order”, “normality” and “sanity” within society? Indeed the primary goals of asylums has always been to keep the “insanes” outside of society because they were considered “dangerous”. But how are they dangerous considering that there is statistically the same amount of criminals amongst the “sanes” than amongst the “insanes”? Is it perhaps because they do not fit in society and their mere existence exposes the lies of this system?

It’s interesting to note that, before the appearance of asylums, heretics, witches, prostitutes, madmen and basically anyone “socially deviant” were being “treated” (tortured, exorcised, burnt) by the Inquisition and, when the Church started to lose its power, some of the witch-hunters “converted” to psychiatry and kept on doing basically the same job, using pseudoscience instead of religion to put themselves above the possessed/mentally ill and try to adjust them to society’s standards. These standards change enormously through time and space. For example, homosexuality was considered to be a disorder by the bible of psychiatry, the DSM, until the 70′s.

Curiously, many psychiatrists today believe that witches were “misdiagnosed”, that they were in fact “suffering” of “mental illness”, not “demonic possession”. They are the only ones who don’t believe in the theory of the scapegoat (a figure whom the fears — or repressed desires — of society are projected on), agreed by all historians. Could it be because this theory also applies perfectly for the “mentally ills” of today?

The ones suffering the most from psychiatry are perhaps the children, who do not have choices regarding their medication because they are not supposed to be “responsible” enough. Apart from ADHD and Asperger’s syndrome mentionned previously, the label of “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” offers a convenient explanation for parents who do not want to understand why their children are rebelling against their oppressive ideology and pointless consumer lifestyle. For these parents, medication appears to be the only “solution”, especially if they are themselves victims of the psychiatric industry.

Psychiatry as political repression
More striking cases of how the myth of “mental illness” has been used by the system for repression include the Soviet Union where political dissenters were regularly “diagnosed” as “mentally ill” and confined in asylums. Similar repression was done in the USA where socially deviants were locked — such as Timothy Leary for advocating the use of “illegal” drugs. And as recently as April 2003 someone who was reading and talking about conspiracy theories within the US government was diagnosed as “paranoid” and held in an asylum for 9 days!

The excess of the passion for liberty produced, in many people, opinions and conducts which could not be removed by reason not retrained by government… The extensive influence which these opinions had upon the understandings, passions, and morals of many of the citizens of the United States, constituted a form of insanity, which I shall take the liberty of distinguishing by the name of anarchy.
- Benjamin Rush, father of American psychiatry

Just like new laws are constantly added to create new classes of criminals and force people into an ever-narrowing range of legality, new mental disorders are “discovered” all the time to create new classes of “insanes”, open new markets for the pharmacology industry and force people into an ever-narrowing range of “sanity”. Actually, the “symptoms” of mental disorders — the only things on which the existence of these “disorders” are based on — are so broad and common that anyone could be “diagnosed” with 2-3 of them by just visiting a psychiatrist!

We need a program of psychosurgery and political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated. The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective. Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain.
- Dr. Jose Delgado

This quote, coming from a psychiatrist who was recruited by the CIA for the MKULTRA program of mind control after having served the fascist regime in Spain, could not be more explicit. This obsession for control is nothing new for the male-driven civilization we live in, and controlling the human mind is no doubt their biggest challenge. They dream to kill the animal (the life-force) in us, to finally transform us into perfect machines working exclusively in the name of “progress”. The founding father of American psychiatry, Benjamin Rush, even considered insanes as “untamed animals whom it is the psychiatrist’s duty to discipline”, a comparison which remind us of the way non-white people were treated during the colonization.

The reality of medication
Electroshock “therapy” and lobotomy are not as common as a few decades ago, although the fact these barbaric practices still exist is deeply revealing of the society we live in. Forced medication has been mostly replacing them, often with a threat of forced confinment if the drugs are not taken.

This change is not caused by a new sense of humanity amongst psychiatrists but by pressures from insurance companies who find it cheaper to send patients back home with drugs prescriptions, as well as from the needs of the pharmacology industry to increase its revenues. Another cause is that people are generally more willing to get “fixed” but we shouldn’t necessarily see voluntary treatment as a progress over forced one. Indeed, it may just prove that we have been so effectively brainwashed that we do not resist anymore.

Of all the tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
- C. S. Lewis

Let’s have a look at the way these prescription drugs “work”. While ads and psychiatrists explicitly or implicitly claim that they help to heal, the reality appears different: they work by merely hiding the “symptoms” and keeping the brain quiet. Once the drugs have finished their effects, the individual is on the same situation as before or even worse, since all antipsychotic drugs can damage the brain after several months or years of “treatment”, a phenomenon known as tardive dyskinesia. All of them are strongly addictive as well.

So we see that drugs do nothing other than keeping an artificial state in the brain which makes things more bearable for the individual. There is nothing wrong with that, considering that some mental disorders are deeply disturbing and can push to suicide, but it’s not fair to tell people that their medication is going to heal them. Prescription drugs, like any other drugs, should be used as cautiously as possible and along with a real treatment, assisted or not by a professional. Otherwise the person will stay a consumer/victim of the pharmacology industry all her life. Sadly, this may be what they are hoping for.

Natural healing
The most problematic effect of these drugs, however, is that they often prevent individuals to go through the natural healing process which requires a dynamic chaotic void before a healthy restoration is possible. Real healing is not a slow gradual process, as psychiatrists would like to believe, but is cyclic, with its lows and its highs, until the brain has been “purged” from old conditioned neurons and a new freedom can be found. Unfortunately the people working on the mental health field don’t like anything chaotic so they do all they can to suppress these “symptoms”, preventing at the same time patients to reach the end of the tunnel.

If a person is lucky enough to be “allowed” to complete the healing process, it results in a new outlook on her image, life, reality and society, allowing her to adopt a more healthy lifestyle, perhaps away from mindless consumerism and weapons of mass distraction like television. Challenges and difficulties are necessary elements of any spiritual growth, and what could be more challenging than a mental “illness” which forces us to understand how our brain works and to evolve our consciousness in order to be able to keep on living? Our “disorders” truly are dangerous gifts which should be cultivated and respected rather than repressed and hated.

Reclaiming our minds
Make no mistake: this lengthy analysis on civilization and psychiatry is not used to push off our responsibility, to blame all our problems on others. We are all too eager to finally reclaim our minds! We don’t need “professionals” to tell us how to live, people have found this by themselves for millions of years, and those “experts” prevent people thinking for themselves, providing instead ready-made explanations for any difficulty they may encounter in their development.

Either you think — or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Victimism leads people to feel that they must have some kind of professional to help them — mental health agent, religious leader, educator, fashion adviser — because they are incapable of independently making their own decisions or carrying out their own activities. This is not the case! We are all capable of finding our way to healing, it’s only the belief that we are not which makes us stuck!

Who can know better than ourselves what’s going on in our minds? Our deep fears, motivations, desires are usually beyond words and they reach such a deep layer of our reality that few psychiatrist could find about them, especially not under the pressure of insurance companies to be more “efficient”. The way we think and see the world is entirely dependent on our past experiences. No one can truly understand us without re-experiencing our whole life!

The idea is not necessarily to reject psychiatry as a whole but to let people choose what they feel is best for them, by showing them the different alternatives available and educating them about the lies of the mental health industry. Most importantly, we are not looking for an unique “Truth”, we want each individual to understand how their mind works, seek their own solutions and have the freedom to enact whatever course of action they feel is best. Self-exploration allows any of us to evolve from the status of helpless victims to the one of healers. This is the spirit of do-it-yourself applied to the brain!

Alternatives to traditional “treatments” exist and most have existed long before a professional class of psychiatrists was created. Examples are : Meditation, yoga, magick, self-hypnosis, herbal & nutritional treatment, cognitive therapy, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). All are useful pieces in our toolboxes. Most of them also have a holistic point of view, which emphasizes the importance of the whole and the interdependence of the parts, an idea most psychiatrists completely reject!

The solution will not come from above or outside, but from below and within. Our unconscious wants to help our conscious mind to heal, if only we listen to it. Changes inevitably happen when we finally take responsibility for who we are, for our life, for our community, for our planet, for our future. We aren’t fooled anymore by society’s doubletalk which tells us to be “responsible citizens” while asking us to follow orders from above without questioning. We want real responsibility and real freedom!

More than healing
At this point something should be clarified: this is not just about healing, because this idea would suppose there is a plateau to be reached, a sense of eternal well-being to be found. There isn’t any, except on fairy tales and advertisements. Remember: permanent happiness is their myth! Personal development (or whatever name you prefer to give it) is in fact an on-going cyclic process where the travel matters more than the destination.

To be able to travel more freely, you’ll want to unload from your shoulders all the burden of psychiatric conditioning and especially the idea that there is something wrong with you. As it should be said more often: you are perfect as you are! You have done your best given your situation and, even if the path you took until now has been more difficult than others, this doesn’t mean you’re a failure! “Normal” people will have to go through this one day too, or else they will never have the chance to grow up.

You are what you believe you are. If you insist on believing that you are a helpless victim of a terrible illness whose salvation lies on the hands of a few mega-corporations, this is what you’ll eventually experience all your life. What do you want?

They lied to you, sold you ideas of good & evil, gave you distrust of your body & shame for your prophethood of chaos, invented words of disgust for your molecular love, mesmerized you with inattention, bored you with civilization & all its usurious emotions. There is no becoming, no revolution, no struggle, no path; already you’re the monarch of your own skin — your inviolable freedom waits to be completed only by the love of other monarchs: a politics of dream, urgent as the blueness of sky.
- Hakim Bey

Depending on how many years have been spent on the mental health industry (or under the judgment of society), changing this belief can be difficult but it’s possible! Pay attentions to your beliefs in your day-by-day life, play with different paradigms (belief-systems) for a day, for a week, for a month. Hack into your reality-tunnel and accept the idea that you are not inferior but simply different, that we are in fact all different. If you need some inspiration or if you aren’t quite convinced that beliefs have a role to play, read some books on cognitive liberty, neuro-linguistic programming or chaos. It might forever change the way you view “reality”.

Following our path
Our mind is self-created, it has developed over the years as we were bouncing on “reality” and other human beings. There is no rigid structure that every brain follows, even if some models are useful to understand how we think. As a consequence, we all have completely different potentials and shortcomings. Instead of focusing on our “problems”, wouldn’t it be more sensible to promote our gifts, skills, desires, sensitivities, so that each one of us make the most of their potential during their limited lifetime, no matter how different they are from the current “norms”?

The norms are and have always been illusory anyway. Quantum physics tell us we are the co-creators of the universe, that the only fact of observing an object changes its nature and that our “subjective” mind has a much more important role in reality than most materialists think. The way we see “reality” and ourselves has more to do with our mental environment (“the Matrix”) than with any kind of materialist reality or genetic predispositions. If we are able to somehow go beyond the mental structures of civilization, if we are able to transcend them, then everything becomes possible!

Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretical limits to what he may be, or what he may do.
- Aleister Crowley

To follow our path, we must first know what we want. We must learn to listen to our inner voice, our unconscious, our true will, that something inside of each one of us which intuitively know what’s the best direction to take. This may mean turning off, at least for a while, all the background noise of civilization, like television, radio, newspapers and eventually friends. All our conditioned fears, desires and ideas of our limitations will not go away at the second we isolate ourselves but we may find meditation valuable to help us in this process.

Two roads diverged in the woods. I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost

As far as we know, we only have one life on this planet. Why should we waste it trying to adapt ourselves to the always more demanding expectations of this insane society when there is so much to live, explore, experience and discover?

Changes always come from below and the old structures of oppression will inexorably fall when we stop relying on them. We will then finally be able to create a new culture of diversity and solidarity where everyone is accepted (and loved!) for who they are!

The good news is that any change we make in society through our actions is likely to have much more impact on our lives than any treatment done alone at home! This doesn’t mean we have to create a new class of professionals who will tell others how to live, that’s the very thing we are opposing! Just like the position of a teacher over his students automatically prevents any teaching to occur, the authority of a healer rules out any real healing. Effective healing is non-hierarchical, with all individuals healing and being healed at the same time.

We have been staying alone for too long! After too many years of isolation and alienation, some have given up the hope that someone will one day truly understand them (as opposed to just being “compassionate” like their psychiatrist — if they are lucky). Enough despair, enough division! We are here, the “insane”, the “angry”, “the unstable”, the “chaotic”, the “depressed” …

The saying “none of us is free as long as some are not free” seems more true than ever in these oppressive times. We can’t expect to find joy and wholeness without changing our environment, without changing the very structures of reality. Thus any real, profound healing will necessarily involve a healing of the planet and society as a whole.

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