IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Waar: Vrankrijk, Suistraat 216, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wanneer: 13/01/2018 - 19:54

This is a letter from Rodrigo Lanza from prison. A benefit is being organised to show him support on the 19th of January at Vrankrijk.
Also on the 21st of January there's a film being screened at Joe's Garage explaining more about Rodrigo's story:
Pintxo and Cinema: Dead City (Ciutat Morta), Xavier artigas and Xapo Ortega (2013). Pintxo from 18.00, film at 20.00.

LETTER FROM RODRIGO LANZA FROM PRISON

Compañer@s,friends,family…

I’m one more time in the dungeons of the State, the belly of the beast. I’m writing you these words from my solitary confinement, isolated but not alone.

Because I know your moral support is much stronger than these bars I have in front of me, that your love for freedom is thousand times worthier than their hate and that there is no wall which can separate us from each other.

I believe in lots of things, and a couple of them have always been that antifascist self defense is the most legitimate that there can be, and that a State which promotes fascism, racism, homophobia, etc. will mercilessly attack the ones who defend themselves.

After being racially insulted, attacked from behind by a man with a knife in his hands and after a tragic end (the death of the attacker) the machinery of the State becomes stronger and knows that a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth, at least for the majority they need.

The attacker becomes the attacked, they make up a ridiculous story (that my attacker was wearing fascist looking suspenders) which is not even in the investigation files, the knife disappears and the fascist and racist links are hidden. They pull out their best weapon: patriotism. In the media I am the dangerous one, and they will repeat the lie a thousand times, because they can and they need it.

I feel a terrible injustice by knowing I’m being used as a pawn in their game but I won’t give in, I know from experience that the truth will come up, even when history is written by the powerful, the winners of the war... for now.

I know we’ll make more noise than them, that our boundaries and solidarity are worth more than their methods and their walls. I still believe (now more than ever) in legitimate defense, in anti fascism, in my brothers and sisters from the streets, in our struggle, in my family, in my principles.

For all these and more, even here in prison and after all the things I’m passing through at the moment, I still believe I’m fortunate because I know I can count on you and you can count on me.

From the dungeons, isolated but not alone.

Rodri 2/1/2018