Silvester Engl.

Please pay attention to date and time changes of the trial.

Changes might occur, possibly at short notice, so keep an eye on the updated list.

Securities measures of the first day of the trial were incredibly pedantic and took a very long time. As a result, court entrance will now start two hours before the trial begins.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

NEW YEARS EVE at the prison.

Like in many other cities, the turn of the new year was accompanied by a rally at the Holstenglascis Remand Prison in Hamburg. At around 7pm the prisoners were greeted with chants and a huge firework display in the park at the rear side of the prison.

From around 11pm, roughly 250 people gathered in front of the prison’s main entrance. Their solidarity was shown with music, speeches, greetings from prisoners and fireworks.

There were very positive reactions and sympathy from the prisoners and their families. A particularly heartfelt greeting was addressed to the prisoners from the park bench and the 129b prisoners.

Fire and flame of repression!

Speech

We are here today because friends, loved ones and family of ours are experiencing the turn of the year behind these ugly walls and we want to be as close to them as possible. We do not recognise the State, its cruel institutions or its repression. Maybe some of you are here because you are sick and tired of being subjected to consumption at every opportunity, and despite the fact that this capitalist system only produces destruction and stupefaction, still, you look for a perspective in which a struggle against it is possible. Here, we are creating a unifying moment in front of this wall, showing the value of our solidarity and our perspective for another world.

We are standing here now, separated from our friends, in front of this prison. It symbolises, like nothing else could, the measures of repression against all delinquents and dissidents. Repression is a logical consequence when people start to resist a system that is based upon power. Repression is the means of subjugation, from those in power, encompassing our daily lives. The daily pressure and compulsion to function according to the law. One function of repression is the separation from each other and it stands between us and our ideas. Repression can create fear of resisting injustice and powerlessness. We do not simply want to suppress this fear but to find a common way of dealing with it. Because what we are fighting against is the isolation, competition and hierarchical relationships that are imposed on us in a capitalist patriarchal society. Important for our militant perspective is the attack on institutions of power as well as the way that relationships are created in our society. This means that the action that entails repression is just as important as how we deal with each other when repression strikes, both of which are attacks against the State!

Going beyond competition, hierarchy and authority, we want to explore ways of dealing with each other. We want to create a common project and approach each other in solidarity. The state already decides too many things in our everyday life, it should not also decide how and when we are in solidarity. It should not tell us who has done wrong and who has done right. We should not fall for the distortion of reality by the state or try to take it over. We want to think beyond laws and investigations. What is the use of knowing who exactly did or did not do something, and how? And all of this within the logic of the State, a logic of guilt. A logic which perpetuates the innocence of the State and its faithfuls, and which inevitably leads to those who disturb a so-called normality, to be guilty.

We show solidarity with attacks against the State and mechanisms of oppression, we show solidarity with our comrades in struggle and mutually strengthen each other in the practiced solidarity of attacks against the existent. In remembering again and again why we are against the State and what we want to stand up for and in which ways we choose to do so, we can counter the fear of repression.

We want a break with this world and create a fundamental, emancipatory change – do we expect this to happen without resistance from those in power? Do we expect that there could ever be resistance without repression? If we want to abolish the State, it is obvious that this will have consequences. Therefore, we should not succumb to the fallacy that we could prevent repression, because it is the cornerstone of this society. In the moments when we decide to defend ourselves against the existent, in which ever form that might be – be it taking the train without a ticket, going to a demonstration, distributing flyers, writing this text here, militant actions or simply not obeying their rules, we always have to expect repression. If there were no repression and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted in this world, we would not have to fight against it. That is why we do not allow ourselves to be paralysed by their repression, but instead to see ourselves strengthened in our ideas of freedom.

The clear program of the authorities of repression is to isolate resistant subjects in order to break them and not to let more resistant potential grow. This can affect everyone. One goal of the state is to bring about division and to eradicate solidarity, and this is exactly what we want to prevent. If we allow ourselves to be insecure but to as well allow the joys and passions that unite us, we can experience moments of freedom without dis-empowerment or a total loss of control. What our solidarity includes and what we can do against repression is to attack the State and the oppression in which we live. Attack in its institutional form as well as in the constructs of relationships that are imposed on us, that we want to replace with realtions of solidarity. We counter the fear of repression and prison with the prospect of living in freedom in another world of solidarity. -And when we come to terms with the fact that we do not have much to lose but everything to gain, then we no longer have to be intimidated, but can stand together with our heads held high against the State and its faithfuls. In the attack against the old and in the creation of something new! Solidarity accompanies us in our daily lives, but is above all an expression of our struggles. The fight against isolation – for solidarity – is the main task of every revolutionary practice, because solidarity is the basis of the relations we want to have with people.

That means: solidarity is the basic principle of what we are fighting for. Solidarity is the struggle we are fighting and the goal we have in mind.

This entry was posted in english – updates. Bookmark the permalink.