DECEMBER 8TH IS NOT AN ISOLATED CASE

The crackdown on the “December 8th” group is very similar to other cases of repression, that have appeared in the frame of anti-terrorist crackdown and its narrative around the world. Whether we look at the operations Pandora (Spain), Backfire (U.S.A.), Network case (Russia), Fénix (Czech republic) or Tarnac (France), we can draw similarities. The way crackdown usually happens is spectacular: unmarked vans arrive and police forces storm living spaces of different individuals. Balaclavas, automatic weapons and bullet shields are often present on the scene to make the operation look very serious and portray the arrested as highly dangerous individuals. Sometimes, such cases involve entrapment – infiltration by police agents, luring the subjects to a criminal case. After, a media boost is given to the operation – police claims successful neutralization of a terrorist cell or network, demonizes the arrested people, portrays them in a specific way. Afterwards, the case goes on for some years with little or insignificant evidence to the subject and scale of the original accusation. Comrades spend few months to more than a year of time in detention, often in very strict conditions. When the case arrives to court, the process reveals lack of evidence, holes in the investigation narrative and overall weak and unconvincing case. The case falls apart then, people are found not guilty or are given probation, or similar minor punishment – if compared to what was the impression of the scary terrorism case in the beginning.

Authorities worldwide are working on strategies of combing different radical movements, restoring their own legitimacy and becoming more efficient at repressing the elements in society that post a threat to the status quo by offering alternatives, practicing resistance and revolutionary organizing. If we want to be strong as a movement, we need to work on how we defend ourselves against repression – neutralize its effectiveness without neutralizing ourselves, as well as on how do we support comrades who are at one of the many fronts of our struggle, being held in prisons. Soldiarity means building the movement, not only in reaction to the moves of the state. When our comrades are held in prison or face any other types of repression, we must take all the emotions that it brings to us, including rage – and apply them on strategic long term organizing with the same seriousness and determination that we are feeling right now.

We can learn from these similar patterns of repression worldwide. If you are interested, read the article Taking a Global View at Repression (https://crimethinc.com/2018/08/28/taking-a-global-view-of-repression-the-prison-strike-and-the-week-of-solidarity-with-anarchist-prisoners) and the Repression Patterns in Europe brochure (https://solidarity.international/index.php/2017/07/21/on-repression-patterns-in-europe/).