Archivio 2000-2001 Inglese

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ARCHIVE 2000-2001

Introduction: this page, born as news and now turned into Archive 2000-2001, starts with the promotion of the show dedicated to Karl Louis Guillen. Karl is a pen pal of ours imprisoned in the SMU II of Florence, Arizona. If you'd like to know more about him and his books visit the web site of the Comitato per la Difesa di Karl Louis Guillen and if you'd like to write to him he'll be very happy. Here's his address:
Karl Louis Guillen # 77614
ASPC - Eyman SMU II
P.O.Box 3400
Florence AZ 85232-3400
USA

19.11.00
GIG FOR KARL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
Sunday 19th of November 9.30 Florence: gig for our friend Karl Guillen against the death penalty at the Auditorium Flog, area Poggetto; special guests Whisky Trail and the BB (Bellugi Battiston duo). Ticket $10 dollars fully given to Karl's defence. Who would like to book the ticket, or help for the advance sale call Olivier +39/055/580422 - Daniela +39/055/5520470. More details within the next days.

20.11.00
20th of November: the following is a short review of the night. Actually all started in the late afternoon with the setting of the promotional stands of the Committee for Karl, Committee Paul Rougeau, Amnesty International, and other organisations in the hall
that was happily packed with the audience mixed up to busy musicians and organizers. Olivier Turquet opened the show introducing Cristina who read Karl's poem "The Grind-down", followed by the musician Marco Parente who read "Last Words", the poem
closing Il Tritacarne. At this point the atmosphere was pretty heavy, but it was lightened by the Bellugi-Battiston duo who played
their repertory of classic music revisited in a more modern, and very original key. The show went on with the charming Irish rhythms by Whisky Trail, and the Celtic traditional dances performed by their dancers and by the audience. Everything closed with a friendly and humanly warm atmosphere. This first show for Karl organized by the Committee has been a success also thanks to the Auditorium's prestigious venue, and to the excellent music. It's been quite a nice and funny night that sadly we couldn't share with
the one it was dedicated to: our friend Karl.

3.2.01
3rd of February - Turin: the Turin section of the Committee for Karl organized a performance for Karl. Very simple yet touching, it's centred on Karl's biography and on his daily life. They read some excerpts from Il Tritacarne, two poems, some letters of Karl's, and played some tapes of his. Luca, playing Karl, moves around in a cell wrapped by white paper and enlightened from within (see photo in our Gallery), therefore just his shape is visible while he does the actions read. He'll be set free in a dream by a dancing angel who tears the papers cell open showing him, finally free, to the audience. It ends with songs from Forrest Gump's sountrack, and with the procession of the actors holding candles. But let's call on Daniela Annetta to speak:
Hi all,
I'm back from Turin where I attended the performance for Karl. It was very nice, and the guys were quite good, they really worked hard and managed to solve a lot of technical problems. Also our two musicians were quite good, they made an excellent soundtrack. The audience was very happy, the hall was packed, and in the end we collected a lot of signatures for Karl's petition. Also the sales of Il Tritacarne went very well, and we even sold two drawings of Karl's.
We've been asked for a repeat performance at Venaria. I advise the guys from Turin to rest a bit cause they really sweated a lot, we don't want our best actors to wear themselves out ;-D)).
If some feels like making the performance in their own town, do you write to me, the script is always available so you can set up a
fine working staff.
Yours truly. Daniela

1.4.01
1st of April - Florence: there's starting the adoption campaign of the Turkish prisoners by the Committee Kurdistan of Florence.
The tragedy of the Kurdish people, persecuted by the Turkish government, has revealed the awful situation of all the inmates, most of all Kurdish, but not only, in the Turkish prisons. The case burst out when, in the October 2000, more than one thousand inmates
began a hunger strike to death called, "open coffin". The strike was called this way because the inmates are protesting against the opening of the awful and inhuman F holes, kind of real graves set in the dungeons. On the 19th of December last the government ordered to attack 40 prisons: 39 inmates were killed, some burned to death by a flame-thrower. The survivors were moved into
solitary confinment and fed by force. Yet the hunger strike is still going on, involving even the inmates' parents, and 27 of the 180 strikers are already dead, while 40 of them are ill and with no medical aid.
To the danger that a nation such Turkey, where there's no freedom of meeting and press, and where the police tortures the inmates
and even their parents and attorneys, joins the E.U., the Committee Kurdistan of Florence replies supporting the minorities' political, civil, cultural, and human rights. That's why the adoption campaign of the Turkish inmates was born.
The adoption provides an epistolary relationship with the inmate's family through the association TUAD-ER of Istanbul (Turkish Association for the Political Detainees), and a monthly payment of $28 dollars for one year, deposited by the Banca Etica, and then transferred to the inmate's family. Previously it was also allowed to write straight to the inmate, but now it's quite impossible, obviously.
You can pay through the bank account # 511162 to Comitato Kurdistan-Firenze Italy c/o Banca Etica ABI 5018 CAB12100, specifying: "In Aid of the Political Detainees' Families in Turkey"

For more info and contacts:
Comitato Kurdistan-Firenze www.kurdistanfirenze.cjb.net E-mail: kurdistanfirenze@tin.it
Cell. 328/3245816 - 338/4194878
The Committee Kurdistan of Florence was born in the January 2001 after that a group of volunteers from Florence, already in touch
with the TUAD-ER, went to Turkey, and realised how horrible the real situation is.

5.5.01

5th of May: today it's the anniversary of Bobby Sands' death (5th of May 1981). He was an IRA activist imprisoned by the Britons, and starved himself to death at 27 to protest against the English government's oppression on Ireland, and the tortures on the inmates. The hungar strike started because of the abuses the inmates were suffering. Bobby were also fighting to get his fellows inmates treated as political prisoners. We commemorate Bobby Sands because he was the symbol of the Irish fight for freedom, the symbol of the inmates' fight for their rights, and the symbol of the fight for the rights of whoever is persecuted by a regime's tyranny.

"I thought a lot about my fast. I see my body fighting all day, it asks for food, it feels the temptation, but at night my mind is back in charge. My mind is the only thing that really counts. They would like to destroy my mind, and my eager for freedom. If they destroy
my eager for freedom, they destroy me. But they don't succeed, it's too strong, it's stuck into my heart. The day the Irish people
will feel this eager, it will be the day of the rising moon". This line is written in Bobby Sands diary's last page, before the weakness overwhelmed him. It's dated 17th of March 1981.

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May - Sollicciano Florence: "Solidarity and Prison: A Project for Sollicciano", this is the name of the campaign by Pantagruel Association to help the inmates of Sollicciano Correctional Department of Florence who don't have the money even to buy some stamps or some toothpaste. This is because the local government covers only a minimal part of the inmates' needs, and just for some short periods, therefore no money gets into the prison fund somemonths.Oddly the tranquillizers, the inmates are addicted, never run out. Coming back to the basic needs, this lack of money affects the non EEC

immigrants most because they have no family able to help them. The male inmates are worse than the female ones because they outnumber women by far, but women often got also their kids to support, therefore currently this project is made to help them in particular. The Pantagruel Association needs money, and clothes and books as well, which are allowed, but it also needs volunteers supporting it, and bringing ideas and concrete actions stirring the prison management and the state to improve inner working activities, allowing the inmates either to earn some money or to be led towards a reintegration into life, and the world of work when they'll be released. Another thing helping the inmates is an epistolary relationship that makes them feel less lonely and drives them to go out from apathy. The money is the most urgent help, of course. For contacts and info:
Associazione Pantagruel - V.Tavanti, 20 - 50134 Firenze
Tel. +39/055/473070 - +39/055/8547977 - +39/055/8547980 from the 8 to 10 p.m. or leave a message in the answerinmachine
E-mail: asspantagruel@virgilio.it
For donations: Associazione Pantagruel - P.O.Box 360 - 51100 Pistoia.
giro account # 10019511. Specify: "Solidarity for Sollicciano"

11.6.01 Indiana, 7:14 a.m. local time. Timothy McVeigh has been executed. White, middle class people's son, army sergeant, McVeigh was the symbol of the most traditional and conservative American, faithful to his country and to the army. When he finds out that soldiers are just cannon fodder to the government and army (Waco slaughter, Weaver murders), he rebels, and turns into a "terrorist". He drove a bomb into the federal bulding in Oklahoma City on April 1995; 169 dead. America is shocked at discovering the national "white" terrorism. But now they took their revenge; the delicate, and controversial McVeigh case turned out to be a precious means to purport once again that the death penalty is right, and necessary. Never mind if McVeigh was, as it seems, just a cog in the grinder's wheel, and that he's gone with his secrets. Never mind if his death prevents them from throwing light on that slaughter, the scapegoat has been sacrificed, and the case is closed. He defied everybody till the end, dying with his eyes wide open. A wild America's son who wild America has killed.
"Today America has killed a piece of itself; the executioner and his victim have never been so alike."
Alessandro Robecchi - Popolare Network - Milan.
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Karl writes on the same day: "Well, they killed McVeigh, and they were pissed because he wouldn't say he was sorry, or admit he
was wrong. But they don't understand that he looked at it as war, and war is hell. They kept trying to presume, or seek McVeigh apology, but they didn't realize that he wasn't sorry. He didn't care what they thought. I keep hearing all these suppositions, but it's all media bullshit. What the man did was wrong, but his ideals have some merit. He just chose the violent route, instead of the peaceful route. Violence is easy, diplomacy and peace is hard. Stupid people resort to violence, for what does it take but a hand to lift a stone and throw, while peace requires speech, understanding, and tolerances."

24.6.01 Strasbourg. First World Congress Against Death Penalty Conference. This first conference, held in the capital of the Council of Europe, has been organized by the ECPM (Ensemble Contre La Peine De Mort) with the support of the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament. Politicians, research workers, journalists, ex- death row convicts, lawyers, and abolitionists from over twenty countries have met for three days (22nd-24th of June). It's a little, but important step Europe took towards the abolition of the death penalty in all the world, and even an important act of independence from the US cultural colonialism. For the first time the United States of Europe make their voices heard, and openly express their dissent to the state murder, "archaic judicial convincements," as Giampaolo Cadalanu writes for Repubblica on the 23rd of June. For the first time magistrates, politicians, and governments joined abolitionists, and independent institutions. The final outcome has been the approval of a petition signed by the delegates, and by the parliaments' presidents from 18 nations, to bear pressure on UNO, so that the nations still using death penalty enforce a world moratorium on executions. Walter Schwimmer, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, attacked the US death penalty policy, and the French president Forni even threatened US and Japan with removing them from appointment as Council observers, thus underlining Europe's growing disappointment at the doubtful political choices of the US president Bush. Chinese delegates weren't present (China holds the record for executions with more than 1000 people executed every year).
The 2nd Conference has been fixed in June 2002, in the US. We'll see if other important steps towards a future universal abolition of
the death penalty take place.
Sources: La Repubblica of the 23.6.01 and BUONE NUOVE # 118 of the 4.7.01
BUONE NUOVE Humanist electronic press agency run by Olivier Turquet http://www.umanisti.it/buonenuove

27.7.01 After the awful events occured in Genoa during the G8, here's some bullshit from Berlusconi government's delegates:
- Police violence during and after G8: "Talks of media influenced people, maniacs bullshit, and anyway these things may always happen."
-Italian and foreigner demonstrators arrested, and missing for days: "Maybe they've gone to the seaside."
-Italian and foreigner demonstrators arrested, and not allowed either to have any attorney, or to call home. "Who's of age needn't
inform their family."
And when eventually D'Alema woke up, and charged the governement with heavy liability in what happened, they replied for him to
quit cause he's disrespectful to premier Berlusconi.
This is just some replies from the rightist delegates, all united to keep on denying what everybody knows by now: our government's outrageous, violent, and impudent behaviour against the opposers during the G8. They've brutally overridden the most elementary human rights, culminating in murder, and going on with physical and psychological tortures on the detainees by pro-nazi guards.
Stories of threatening acts, stompings, and sadistic tricks against defenceless people are alike what Karl has reported in The Grinder. Are the Italian prisons getting like the American? Or is it a treatment our convicts have always suffered without our knowledge? And does this violence really come just from pro-nazi fringe (how widely spread?), or is it a more general tendency? Sometimes something leaks out, but we still talk too little about our convicts.

3.8.01 As to the question about the treatment to our Italian convicts, born in our minds during the dire G8 days, on the Press Review page of Promiseland site we found something interesting that faithfully transcribe. Click here.

15.10.01

Here we're again on these screens, pretty late after the summer break. Too many things have happened in the meanwhile, and now we find ourselves in a world shocked by a new terrorism and by the umpteenth war, the USA vs Afghanistan, war that, as we'll see, has very little to do with the fight against terrorism. But let's go in order.

In the second half of August, Marzia and Cristina went to see Karl (N.B. photo here). It's been quite an important experience under many points of view which we recommend to anyone able to do it. It's been quite important for Karl, a momentary but significant break from the deathly dullness of his existence that drags itself along, if his heart and his health don't sag, between the usual harassments and hopes for a move to a less severe prison. We beg you to write or help him, if you can, cause it's extremely necessary for Karl to be able to know somebody's here. It's vital for him to receive as much stimuli as possible from the outside, and to meet personally the friends he knows just by mail, so he can feel more tangibly their love, and can keep the balance and the quietness that help him not lose his will to live. Here you can read some excerpts from Cris' travel diary.

We close this update with a comment about the war in Afghanistan.The second week of US bombings over Afghanistan has started and the situation is clearing up. Everything began with the attack of New York and Washington on the 11th of September, by some ALLEGED

terrorists from Al Queda. USA soon replied energetically, as the're used to, stating that their action would be aimed solely at fighting terrorism, and particularly at digging out Osama Bin Laden, the sheikh instigator of the last years major terrorist attacks against the US. Now the facts are showing that the definition of, "War against terrorism" is just a shameless euphemism. Actually, it's getting more and more like a total, and indiscriminate war against the Afghan people already broken by the Russian invasion, and by the Taliban regime. People who just have race and religion in common with terrorists. It's clear by now that the only aim is to overthrow the Afghan government and replace it with a pro-American one. We're seeing the same brutal, rough-and-ready systems already used in the Middle East and South America, that then are, on a grater scale, and more boldly, the same systems used on convicts, never mind about innocence or guilt: "Or you're with me, then we can make a deal, or against me, and then you're bound to die." But we know that US is now the only Great Power left, and they can afford whatever they want, and a Great Power cannot surrender to moral sentimentalism, and feebleness at the cost of sacrificing its own people. "First bombs, then reforms" summed up the US government's thought. No diplomacy, no proper foreign policy, no more efficient spy network, really useful means to fight terrorism, but just brutal, rough-and-ready systems, with no more distinction between actual and imaginary enemies. Bin Laden's attack is indeed revealing itself a blessing in disguise to USA, it's an alibi for a long- prepared wider action that once won will allow USA, China, and Russia to split up the country, and to reach, through this privileged track, the oil wells. It's not by chance that when Sudan in 1993 offered to give Bin Laden to USA they rejected it. The alliance against Bin Laden and Afghanistan has even managed to approach China again, while on the background the Israel/Palestine feud rekindles. That grew into a real war, into an open nvasion of the Palestinian territories by an Israel now legitimized to act without the fleeting diplomatical brakes previously restraining it.

27.10.01 The first edition of the "One Day For Peace" took place yesterday, Friday 26th of October in S.Croce Square in Florence. It has been an event excellently organized by the Association Un Tempio Per La Pace - A Temple For Peace whose residence is by the L.B.Alberti High School. There were many schools, many benefit associations with their stands (Amnesty, Emergency, Greenpeace, WWF, UNICEF, and many others), and also the Committee For Karl along with Multimage Publisher
(N.B. photo here). It's been a relaxing day devoted to those human values, and that peace the world needs so much now. The event took place in a town like Florence that luckily still manages to offer places and moments on a human scale. It's been a human and "Humanist" experience, devoted to the people at their best. A kind of a good old times fair in an ancient square, where people could interact and enjoy pure fun, and simple amusements, with many shows, from dance to theatre, to music, all of high quality. It's been a full day, rich in shows and games, never boring or tiring, and indeed it flew away under the clearest sky, and a wonderful Autumn sun. We heartily thanks the organizers who have worked so hard and long to give us all that. A special thanks to the Association President, Marco Romoli, and to all the guys of the L.B.Alberti high school, hoping to meet again for a second edition in 2002.

7.11.01 Are we plumbing the depths? USA go on bombing defenceless people in Afghanistan, with no real effect on terrorists, of course, though the politicians and media keep on talking of "fight against terrorism". But we know now it's not politically correct to speak ill of the USA, and this war's actual reasons, therefore we will diplomatically fall silent on this matter. But even the inquiries into the attacks on Washington and New York are ALLEGEDLY slacking. FBI is ALLEGEDLY at its wits end. More than one thousand suspects (some say 1147), an absurd number, were arrested all over USA since the 9.11, on a generic charge of "violation of the immigration laws". They're from Middle East for the most part, but their nationality, and the actual reason of their arrest is still unknown. In spite of the well known systems used on those caught in the "grinder's spikes", allegedly even during the interrogations, they've come to nothing. Then there is the idea: let's rediscover torture to force suspects to sing, preventing in this way many deaths from happening. It's easy to imagine the outcome if torture is to be condoned, the witch-hunt and hysterical atmosphere of McCarthian era that's infecting USA anew.
On this subject we've transcripted the article published today in La Repubblica coupling with another one about tortures on Palestinian prisoners, still published on La Repubblica on the 17.9.79. You can read them here.

17.11.01 Yesterday at the Community Centre "Il Pozzo", area Le Piagge in Florence, a performance was held, "Sentence End: Never" by the Rebibbia Correctional Department's theatre organized by ACLI (Catholic Association of Italian Workers) and by the Pantagruel Association.
It was quite a well organized and acted performance that earned great applause, and it's no coincidence that the Rebibbia Roman Correctional Department's theatre group is the oldest theatre group in Italy, being born in 1982. A simple performance, but in this even more enjoyable, centered on a life sentence, that's the total denial of any rehabilitation, hope or life. We still barely talk about life sentences because it's not so shaking as the death penalty, yet it's equally painful because it's comparable to a torture, where one's freed after endless years at the natural end of life. Here you can see some shot of the performance.
It's been moving to attend this peaceful and constructive collaboration between inmates and prison management, far away from the wild schemes of power and abuse that we're used to. We'll be rhetorical, but we dare say that last night, in a small and simple place such as the Centre "Il Pozzo", in the Florentine outskirts, a small pearl of humanity was shining.
We remind you that the Pantagruel Association is going on with its aid program for the inmates of Sollicciano Correctional Department of Florence called "Solidarity and Prison: a Project for Sollicciano", see article of May 2001 in this page. They also organized a vocational training class for prison social workers and volunteers called "To listen to ourselves and to the others" that will take place by the Pantagruel Association from the 28th of November to the 17th of March. You can read here the information release (in Italian) plus the excerpt from a letter by some inmates from Sollicciano.
For further info:
ASSOCIAZIONE PANTAGRUEL - Via Tavanti, 20 - 50134 Firenze Italy - Ph.and fax:+39/055/473070;
E-mail: asspantagruel@virgilio.it
PROGETTO INFORMACARCERE - Centro Cultura Legalità Democratica Regione Toscana - Via Gustavo Modena, 13
50121 Firenze Italy - Ph.+39/055/4384103 - Fax:+39/055/4384100;

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And for a good piece of news going, another bad one coming:
the USA government decided to resort to special courts against those even just suspected of terrorism; they may be tried secretly, and sentenced even to death with no appeal.
Think about it...

30.11.01 It's the second year of celebrations in Tuscany to commemorate the 30th of November, in 1786, when the decree by the Gran Duke Leopoldo of Lorena abolished torture and the death penalty. Tuscany was the very first nation in the world to step towards humanity, a civilization that's not present in some rich Western countries. We're talking about USA, who continue their stubborn and hard policy, without reaching anything in the end. They don't even manage to keep safe from the national terrorism affecting the common mortals on the rest of the planet, in spite of their boasted security. And the American eagle's only reply has been the bombing of Afghanistan, and a witch-hunt against whoever is or looks Islamic.
They killed McVeigh, but now his ghost is coming back, haunting Americans. McVeigh wasn't a lone case, an insane criminal full of hate to the institutions, and his execution (see article of the 11.6.01 in this page) was no use. He was just a small wheel of a monstrous fascist machine, that the US government helped give birth to and grow.
Since the 11th of September, we wondered whether US terrorists had anything to do in the attack against the Twin Towers, and now
it seems that something is tearing off this veil of arrogant conspiracy of silence by a nation that doesn't hesitate to sacrifice its own people for political and financial interests. We transcribe an article on this subject published in the daily Il Manifesto from yesterday
the 29th of November. It seems there's also some interesting development about anthrax case. Click here to read both articles by Il Manifesto.

16.12.01

From our fellow Anthony Stubbs: "Dear fellow-campaigners, We have been asked by Turid Sandberg to take an active interest in the case of Thomas Miller-El, who is locked in a Texas jail, and scheduled to be executed on February 21st. Turid describes this case as "the nastiest I've ever seen....a nightmare". Although it is now too late to present evidence of innocence, we might still be able to plead that the trial was unjust - there is plenty of evidence for this. Will you please go to the web page www.thomasmillerel.com for information and requested action. Turid thanks you in anticipation of your co-operation, and of course Thomas Miller-El does too.
Yours, Anthony Stubbs

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Editor's note: please, spread this message, and click on the address above. On the site devoted to Thomas Miller you can also find several excellent writings of his. Again, thanks everybody for your support!
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Another inmate trapped in the Texas death row is Eugene Broxton.
Click here to read his story touchingly described by Giorgio Nobili on the
bilingual web site he devoted to him.

22.12.01 RECEIVED AND PUBLISHED
Excerpts from the electronic paper "Agenzia di Base"

Agenzia di Base Firenze, Friday 21th of December 2001
By: Altracittà - outskirts' paper http://www.altracitta.org/ and Box S.E.P.E. http://soalinux.comune.fi.it/boxsepe
Contact agenziadibase@yahoogroups.com

Le Notizie 21st of December 2001

Inside and outside the walls. The "Inmates' fund for the inmates" was borne
In Florence there are about 1000 inmates in a 400 man capacity prison.There are just 5 educators and a chronic lack of money for
the inmates' basic needs (job, health, food, cloth, personal hygiene). Within this context was born the "Inmates' fund for the inmates" to set up a supporting fund covering some of the poverty stricken inmates' needs (phone cards, train tickets, etc.), and promoting events and collective activities inside and outside the jail's walls. For the first time the inmates take action, go outside, and talk about themselves in a public meeting being held on the 27th of December at the Public Housing unit "XXV APRIL", 117 Bronzino St. Florence, from 4.00 to 8 p.m. This initiative has been supported by 620 inmates of Sollicciano together with: Tuscany ARCI (Italian Cultural Social Club), the Association "Il Muretto"; the Association Prison Volunteers; Hostel "Il Samaritano"; the Community Center "Le Piagge"; the "Other Right"; the Pantagruel Association; and the Society "S.Vincenzo de Paoli". They will produce a movie on some prison life experiences.
To support the Fund you can pay on the postal account No 24725509 made out to: Community Center "Le Piagge, Via Lombardia 1/p, 50145 Firenze, specifying: "Inmates' Fund for the Inmates".

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21st of December 2001
Mumia Abu Jamal is safe
Mumia Abu Jamal's 1981death sentence has been withdrawn. Mumia was the Black Panthers' leader, charged with a policeman's murder. The Pennysilvania judicial authorities have six months to call a new sentencing hearing.The federal judge has invalidated the 1981sentence on the basis of some irregularities allowed by then Judge Sabo. (e.b.)

Agenzia di Base is a supplement of Altracittà - outskirts' paper http://www.altracitta.org/
Registered c/o the Court of Florence under the No 4599 on the 11th of July 1996
Editorial manager: Cristiano Lucchi: redazione@altracitta.org

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Now there's a new page dedicated to the electronic newsletters by the St. Egidio Community, with all the addresses to read the latest news about death penalty, and some prison critical cases.
Click here to read the newsletter of the 22.12.01 and Have a Good Surfing!
The newsletters on our site are in Italian but on St.Egidio's you can read it even in English.

28.12.01 Our search for knowing the Italian prisons' realities better goes on. Yesterday we attended, and took part in a meeting at the Public Housing in V. Bronzino, organized by the Sollicciano Inmates Commission (N.B. news of the 22.12.01). So interesting and involving that we would never stop talking, also because there were many topics, and the participation was high. Also the direct contact with the inmates was very interesting, and to be able to talk with the interested parties about their problems with no screen nor limit. We thank those who allowed them to express themselves: from the educators and volunteers, to the current prison management.
The meeting was opened with the presentation of an excellent Cd Rom on Sollicciano that introduced a wider talk on the daily life and the heavy situation inside the prison, alike the other Italian prisons: overcrowding, little funds, poor health service, and poor rehabilitation aid. These are the main problems, without forgetting the mistreatments to the inmates, and torture, as it happens in
other regions. Within this extremely precarious situation, the braver, and luckier, inmates rolled up their sleeves and made the first
step to look for a solution, to try to get out from their isolation, to open themselves and open the prison to the world outside, because to inform people, and make them aware, is necessary to make improvements. And good and steady information might even come to undermine the old culture that see the inmates only as criminals who deserves the punishment, and may not ask for anything else, even to repent or to be rehabilitated.
Currently there are 50 newspapers in Italy made by inmates and volunteers, at least 11 in Tuscany. Let's remember "La Grande Promessa -The Big Promise" printed within the Porto Azzurro prison for 50 years, "Liberarsi della necessità del carcere - To get free from the need of prison" (read here some excerpts from the issue of November) run for 15 years by the Pantagruel Association along with the Sollicciano inmates, and "Gutenberg", of course, run by the Sollicciano inmates themselves since April 1999 (read here some excerpts from the issues of April 1999, and last October's). Some prisons even manage to have a radio - see "Radio Evasione" broadcasting from the prison "Due Palazzi" of Padua through Radio Sherwood, and the "Tg Galeotto", broadcasted by the inmates of the Gorgona Isle - and a web site, see "Ristretti Orizzonti" of Padua, "La Storia di Nabuc" of the Aversa prison, and "Magazine 2" of S.Vittore in Milan. But to keep this media they need money, because they're self financed and live on donations. Currently we, of the Committee For Karl, know the papers "Liberarsi" and "Gutenberg", and they don't look bad at all, besides since we're from Florence, we tend to support our fellow citizens we therefore reccomend them to you, and ask you to help them live and grow. To inform, and the freedom of information, they're too valuable to be underrated, and if we don't support the associations, the inmates and the little independent medias (see also Controradio, now more than ever needing our help) fighting for a free information, then our future will be really hard, and we won't be able to complain because we ourselves will have helped come to this.

We remind you again. To help the Sollicciano inmates and their Commission running "Gutenberg" you can make a transfer on the giro account No 24725509 out to: Comunità di Base le Piagge, Via Lombardia 1/p, 50145 Firenze Italy, specifying "Inmates' Fund for the Inmates".

To help the Pantagruel Association and its paper "Liberarsi" you can take out an yearly free subscription by making a tranfer on the giro account No 10019511 out to the Associazione Pantagruel - P.O.Box 360 - 51100 Pistoia Italy. Specifying: Subscription newspaper "Liberarsi".

Those who would like to buy the Cd Rom can write to the Commissione Detenuti Carcere di Sollicciano c/o Biblioteca, V.G.Minervini 2/r - 50142 Firenze Italy.

We'd like to make two last, but equally important, reccomendations:
the books of excellent poems by Claudio Crastus, the fourth and latest
one of his is called "Una Luna Per La Notte" (only in Italian), and the finest
drawings made with iridescent threads by Mauro Magistrini (See the one on the left). Crastus e Magistrini are both housed at Sollicciano.
To order one of Claudio Crastus' books write to the editor,
Libreria Padovana Editrice - C.P. 990 - 35100 Padova - http://www.literary.it
E-mail:lpe@literary.it
To order one of Mauro Magistrini's drawings write to
Anna Giulia Marchi member of the Società San Vincenzo De' Paoli.