<nettime> Hard-disks nailed to the Italian consulate in Dijon, France

[darkveggy <darkveggy@squat.net>]

Report of an Indymedia support action

For photos of the action, flyers and miscellaneous material, see 
http://print.squat.net/move.html#imc-italie

PRINT (hacklab/autonomous computer workshop) & PASSION (anarchist action 
collective) had called for an action in solidarity with Indymedia on 
Thursday 4th, November 2004, to protest the repression campaigns initiated 
by swiss, Italian, and US authorities.

The action aimed at putting direct pressure on the Italian government 
through an occupation of its local representation. It also meant to inform 
passers-by about the Indymedia network and the alarming threats on 
dissident information initiatives (details in the call to action [1]).

At about 1.30pm, some 20 people met in front of Dijon's Italian consulate. 
A metal plate bearing two red and black hard-disks was nailed to the 
front-door of the consulate. A slogan in Italian was written on it: 
"VOLETE I NOSTRI DISCHI? IN FACCIA, VE LI DIAMO!" ("YOU WANT OUR 
HARD-DISKS? WE THROW THEM IN YOUR FACE!"). This trophy of shame made the 
repressive politics of the Italian state visible.

A cage containing a computer with the Indymedia logo was installed in 
front of the consulate, as well as a banner showing "AGAINST THE 
CENSORSHIP OF INDYMEDIA".

A lot of information flyers [2] were distributed, as well as stickers 
advertising "TO FBI AND POLICE OF ALL COUNTRIES: STAY AWAY FROM OUR 
DISKS!" [3].

Some Indymedia exhibition boards were hung in the street, in order to 
present the Indymedia network to curious on-lookers.

After an hour of gathering and discussing in the rain, demonstrators came 
together to occupy the consulate, in order to demand the sending of 
protest faxes to the Italian government. But once inside the building 
hall, we found a closed door and a notice announcing an "exceptional 
closing for the 4th of November". What a coincidence! Keep in mind that 
Dijon's Italian consulate has been regularly occupied over the last few 
years, in reaction to the Italian government's repressive politics. We 
presume that the announcement of the action made them shut the place down 
for the day. Therefore, we left, leaving souvenirs and protest decorations 
on the walls, floors, doors and mailboxes.

Our freedom of action and information strongly depends upon our 
visibility, and upon the concrete pressure we can put against states and 
their police. We hope that this demonstration, together with various other 
support actions being carried in the last few weeks, will be followed by 
others. We're willing to share the material we produced for this action 
with interested collectives: press releases, flyers, stickers, exhibition 
boards and posters can be found on our website [4].

Contact : print@squat.net

[1] http://print.squat.net/docs/appel-action_IMC-Dijon-20041104.txt

[2] http://print.squat.net/docs/tract-action_IMC-Dijon-20041104.pdf

[3] http://print.squat.net/docs/Stickers-IMC-FBI-fr.pdf

[4] http://print.squat.net/move.html#imc-italie


-- 
d a r k v e g g y - gnupg key @ https://squat.net/darkveggy/gpg.asc




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