Amadeu Casellas, 64 days hungerstrike - a "not political enough" prisoner.
iosaf | 23.08.2008 19:04 | Analysis | Repression | World
His case as a political prisoner is clear & the contrasts between his hungerstrike against unconstitutionally continued detention & those of more "political" prisoners in the recent history of the Spanish state is stark.
Amadeu Casellas Ramón
Hospital de Terrassa, Mòdul penitenciari
Ctra. Torrebonica, s/n
C.P. 08227
Terrassa
Catalunya
Spain
Amadeu did not earn his prison sentence for over twenty killings in the name of Basque seperatism as the last hunger strike in the Spanish state, Iñaki de Juana Chaos did. Yet his demands for remission are similar and his protest against continued encarceration parallel. Yet Amadeu has not won an article in the British "Times" complete with photograph of his emaciated body now that he has lost more weight than de Juana Chaos had. There are no daily or nightly protests in his support, there is no international movement picketing the embassies of the state whose penitential system has systematically attempted to erode his dignity and now ignores his hungerstrike.
Amadeu is neither the object to or of any peace process which touches on either seperatism or self-determination.
Amadeu did not appear in court speaking in arabic claiming anarchistic justification for a career of succesful & lucrative bank hits without any evidence of "robin hood" generosity as "El Solitario" did when facing his case of double murder earlier this year. As the report on this website asked its title ""El Solitario" goes down : was he the last "anarcho-bank" robber?" http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/404244.html
we may answer now - No he was not.
Amadeu was neither political enough nor a good enough bank robber for his story, his past, his heritage, his connections to a former age & its struggles to merit attention.
Until this last week a young man (Franki) who had served less than 2 months for burning a Spanish flag, and thus become the latest standard bearer for the Catalan independence movement, added his name to the list of anarchists appealing for solidarity with and support for Amadeu. http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/65441/tots-i-totes-amb-lamadeu-caselles
(part of the letter was translated to English here http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407086.html?c=on#c202407 )
Then his mother's words & her picture appeared in the Catalan press and his story appeared for one day on the umbrella site of Catalan nationalism.
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=2973366
So if we don't feel Solidarity can we feel Compassion?
If we don't feel Compassion might we yet feel Sympathy?
Will a man with AIDS who has never been charged with any physical assault be a danger to the community if he is released now?
Is there real danger for the state that a generation be inspired by this hungerstriker to wage war on Spain?
Does pity come tomorrow or the day after tomorrow & does pity have any relation to reality?
declarations of his family and support team
http://paisatgedesdelafinestra.blogspot.com/2008/08/lamadeu-casellas-resistir-fins-al-final.html
http://paisatgedesdelafinestra.blogspot.com/2008/08/amadeu-casellas-62-dies-en-vaga-de-fam.html
his lawyer Francesc Arnau
http://despatxdalp.blogspot.com/
Last article on IMC UK http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407086.html
updates from La Haine
http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?s=Amadeu+Casellas&sentence=sentence&submit=Buscar
updates from A Las Barricadas
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/8328
write to Amadeu : you can see a PDF here which tells you how to if you can't really think of something yourself. http://www.klinamen.org/textos/AmadeuCasellas_eng.pdf
Amadeu Casellas Ramón
Hospital de Terrassa, Mòdul penitenciari
Ctra. Torrebonica, s/n
C.P. 08227
Terrassa
Catalunya
Spain
also pressure all representatives of the Spanish state at an international level.
Dirección General de Servicios Penitenciarios
Albert Batlle i Bastardas
c/Aragó, 332. Barcelona, España
Phone: 93.214.01.00
Fax: 93.214.01.56
Juzgado de lo Penal nº 2 de Manresa
Jueza Erika López Gracia
C/Alfons XII, nº 7
Manresa, España
Phone: 93 872 82 77
Fax: 93 872 71 05
iosaf