Against the building of a maxi-prison in Brussels
Pamphlet distributed in November and December 2013 in Anderlecht , Saint-Gilles , Molenbeek and Anneesens
No new prisons , no maxi-prison in Brussels !
Since several years , the walls of the prisons are pierced by revolts , uprisings and escapes . Rebellious prisoners destroyed prison infrastructures , lit fires , refused to go back to the cells after the walk , climbed on the roofs to mark their rage . They took guards hostage , opened the cell doors of everybody on the wing , attacked police who intervened to protect the suffocating order . The heart beat accelerates , breathing becomes more deep . In revolt , we discover freedom .
Also on the outside of the walls , some have made a fist and chose the offensive . From demonstrations to attacks against the companies making money with imprisonment . From ambushes against guards to the kalashnikov shoot-out against the gates of the prison of Forest in Brussels to bombs on the construction site of the new prison in Marches . From the organization of escapes to riots in the neighbourhoods . The walls of the prisons revealed to be not always that strong .
But facing revolt , is repression . The State has been announcing it for a while now : the building of 13 new modern and efficient prisons . Some are already being built , for others the government is still looking for sites . But it is sure that also in Brussels , power wants to a new prison , the biggest of them all . They want to build it in Haren , between Evere and Schaerbeek . On the outside or on the inside , the shadow of this prison will be a chain around the neck of all of us .
No city-prison !
It is not only to break the revolt inside of the prisons that the State wants to build this maxi-prison . It will also become an indispensable element of what the powerful are doing in general .
Here in Brussels , power is mutilating a whole population , without any shame . Building projects for the powerful and their money are popping up while the downside of Brussels is pushed even more into misery : rents are rising , social aids and salaries are diminishing . Labor conditions are deteriorating , laws on immigration become harder . The canal zone in Molenbeek is being transformed into a posh area for rich people , raising a true wall between the misery on the one side and the arrogant negligence of the rich and their luxury shops on the other . In the north of Brussels , a tower , the tallest of the whole city , is being build : specially and exclusively designed to offer luxury apartments for eurocrats and company managers . The difference between those up high and those down couldn ’ t be more explicit .
There where fortune imposes itself , power needs to protect itself against the oppressed , to protect itself and its property . The brutality of the disgusting coppers go hand in hand with the cowardliness of the video-surveillance and the bourgeois on the corner . The new prison in Haren will serve in the future to lock up at least 1200 persons . As if there weren ’ t already enough hits to deal with , not enough misery and suffering !
Also in this city , starting to resemble ever more a prison , it is revolt who is giving us oxygen . Revolt against those responsible for this city in chains . Revolt against the thousands of walls they have built all around us . Revolt to be free , to breath as a free being .
So , long live the uprising !
Every plan can be spoiled , every construction can be sabotaged , every power can be attacked . The struggle against the building of this maxi-prison has to be a direct and offensive struggle , it is the only way to obstruct this construction . We cannot entrust this struggle to nobody ( parties , syndicates ,...), it has to start from ourselves . What we are proposing , is on the one hand a struggle which puts sticks in the wheels of those who want to build this atrocity and make money with it ( construction companies , architects , political responsibles ,...) and on the other hand , a struggle which tends to intervene directly in the streets against everything which is locking us up in daily life as much as this new prison will do .
Power wants us to believe that we cannot do anything . She pretends to be invulnerable . But things are not like that . Power can be attacked everywhere where it materializes : in her offices , in her institutions , in her uniforms . And this revolt depends only of ourselves .
Neither politicians nor leaders : self-organization to fight the power ! No new prisons : let ’ s attack the companies who are building them ! Let ’ s block the road of the projects for luxury and control : sabotage against their construction sites !
PS : Who is making money with imprisonment ?
• Building companies like VALENS , BAM and DENYS
• Architects like Buro II & Archi + I and Jaspers & Eyers
• Banks like BNP Fortis / Paribas , Belfius and KBC
• Companies like Fabricom Cofely Services , Sodexo , Cegelec and Cofinimmo
A more complete list can be found on www . lacavale . be
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