Against the spy cops, our weapon is solidarity

Since 2010, activists in Britain have been rocked by a series of revelations about police espionage. During their operations, these “spy cops” infiltrated autonomous spaces and sexually assaulted women that were members of targeted activist groups. In Catalonia, a similar series of revelations have just been made public. It highlighted another sickening case of police violence against women, which has had a shocking number of parallels with the cases we are well familiar with at home. Here we publish a statement from La Cinètika, an autonomous centre in Barcelona that was a target of this violence. Solidarity with the survivors. Mort a l’estat policial.

Last Monday, the 30^th of January, we woke up to an article published by La Directa, where they revealed that an agent of the National Police had for years been infiltrating different autonomous and libertarian spaces in Barcelona. La Cinètika, an autonomous, anti-capitalist and feminist occupied social centre, located in the neighbourhood of Sant Andreu de Palomar, Barcelona, is one of the spaces affected by this operative.

Once again, the State has deployed its mechanisms of control and repression to persecute militant people and their spaces.

The infiltration of our lives by one of its agents was done with the objective of extracting information about the activities carried out by the autonomous and libertarian movement. This type of operation usually has a strong impact wherever it takes place, causing fear, demobilisation and paranoia.

La Cinètika has operated in an autonomous and self-managed capacity for years. We try to be a politically and culturally open space for the community to confront and transform capitalist reality, through the everyday practice of mutual aid, solidarity and non-transactional relationships. By applying these practices for more than 6 years of occupation, we have been able to build a constantly growing community that is inclusive, open and politically conscious. Now this community is facing a dire situation, which has left us feeling attacked and vulnerable. However, we will not submit before this repressive onslaught and we will continue to confront institutional violence with the collective force that we have built.

We condemn all repressive strategies of the State and its mechanisms of surveillance, control and oppression, which have exposed the patriarchal system that operates within it. We will not allow our ideas and practices to be threatened by the police harassment to which we are systematically subjected.

We also understand that these repressive structures are an intrinsic part of the State and therefore they will always be available to the government, regardless of which party controls it. Because of this we will reject any attempt by those who share power with the government, or aspire to seize it, to use us for their own purposes.

We know that we aren’t the only protagonists of this story, many people have been affected by this both personally and politically. Consequently we want to express our unconditional solidarity and to ask for absolute respect for all those affected, to avoid rumours and hearsay and to take care of ourselves and each other.

We once again reiterate that, for the time being, we will not speak to the press. We support the communiques published by many different collectives and individuals over the past few days, but this communique should be understood as the first and only public statement published by us as a collective.

We are neither the only ones to be targeted, nor are we the first. And although we know that we probably will not be the last, we will continue to work alongside each other to make it so.

Espionage without conscience, solidarity without limits.

Together, strong and ungovernable.

Last of all, as fervent advocates of collective practices and mutual aid, we invite you all to make our communique yours and adhere to it as a collective that supports us. By seeing ourselves in each other, we will feel stronger together.