On Oct. 2022, anarchist Alfredo Cospito began an all-out hunger strike.
Alfredo, a revolutionary prisoner since 2012, was transferred to Bancali Prison in Sardinia on May 5 and is subjected to 41 bis, a prison regime repeatedly denounced as a form of torture based on the technique of sensory deprivation. Recall that this special prison regime is also applied to three comrades of the BR PCC, to whom it has been constantly renewed for more than 17 years.
The hunger strike, an extreme form of struggle, serves to support the following demands: Abolition of the 41 bis detention regime for all detainees and abolition of hostile life imprisonment ( a form of perpetual imprisonment that requires cooperation with repressive forces as the only possibility of obtaining benefits).
Other anarchist prisoners have joined this strike: since Oct. 25, Juan Sorroche in Terni prison; since Oct. 27, Ivan Alocco in Villepinte prison (France); since Nov. 7, Anna Beniamino in Rebibbia prison (Rome); and since Nov. 9, Toby Shone, a prisoner in England, has been solidarizing with an intermittent hunger strike. A sign of solidarity is also given by Giannis Michailidis, a prisoner, already on hunger strike in support of the eleven Turkish revolutionaries also on hunger strike in Greek prisons.
After a month of struggle, the prisoners’ initiative and the international mobilization that is supporting them have achieved the goal of breaking the wall of silence with which the authorities and the media have tried to conceal this affair.
Despite this, no concrete steps have been taken by the Italian state, which is responsible for Alfredo Cospito’s conditions of detention and health, to remove the prisoner from the torture prison regime.
After more than a month of hunger strike, the concerns for his health and those of his high comrades are growing stronger, their lives are in danger .
We hold the Italian state authorities responsible for this situation and for any damage that the strikers’ health will suffer.
On Dec. 1, the supervisory court that has the power to remove Alfredo from 41 bis will meet in Rome.
On Dec. 5 in Turin, Anna and Alfredo will be tried for the crime of «political massacre» under the fascist penal code that was never repealed. They face a hostile life sentence for the 2006 explosive attack on the Carabinieri cadet school in Fossano, an attack that resulted in neither deaths nor injuries.
The period between Dec. 1 and Dec. 5 is therefore of utmost importance for this mobilization and requires maximum commitment from everyone.
Alfredo Cospito’s imprisonment in a regime of physical and psychological political annihilation represents a danger to all anarchists, revolutionaries and social fighters in Europe as it indicates the tendency for repression to intensify in the current context of economic and social crisis: a right of war for times of war.
From inside the jails, comrades on hunger strike set an example by responding to the onslaught of domination. We, on the outside, are called to live up to their commitment.
To make the voice of the international anarchist movement heard, we are launching a week of action in solidarity with the anarchist prisoners’ strike against the 41 bis regime and hostile life imprisonment, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5.
Nov. 23, 2022
Comrades and comrades