Call for Solidarity with Paolo Todde on Hunger Strike

Sardinian comrade Paolo Todde, hit by repression in the early 2000s for the operation against the Fraria of Cagliari (anarchist group), currently in pre-trial detention accused of the robbery of October 9, 2024 (robbery of a betting shop in Sestu), began a hunger strike on April 25 together with other prisoners to protest against the living conditions in the prison of Uta (Cagliari). The intervention of l@s garantes (a figure similar to the Ombudsman), with their empty and useless promises, caused the strike to be interrupted for a week. But Paolo has decided to resume it on his own, from May 8, with the intention of taking it to the end.

We note that Paolo is 64 years old and that he has started the hunger strike with a body weight of only 61 kgr. Paolo shares with us the dream of a thousand things such as a free Sardinia or the hatred for prisons and the society that produces them, and he has not been indifferent to the continuous violence and humiliation of the colonial occupation forces (he collaborated with the Committee of Solidarity with the Deported Sardinian Proletariat that provided support to Sardinian prisoners dispersed in Italian prisons at the end of the twentieth century). For the State, bending or eliminating him serves as a warning to those who fight against the system and to all prisoners who rebel in front of the prison.

That is why (Paolo) has been subjected to continuous provocations by the jailers, such as the arbitrary blocking of correspondence or the entry of money, not allowing him to make video calls with excuses, taking him late to visits, throwing his books and mail into the damp baskets of dirty clothes, etc. All this violence is in addition to the situation that the prisoners are experiencing and that Paolo has been denouncing for months.

In Uta the tap water is not drinkable, after the administration mixed it with chlorine to eliminate fecal bacteria that prevented its use even for personal hygiene, now it cannot be used even for cooking. The cells are overcrowded (there are 140 prisoners more than the maximum capacity of the prison) and they are locked up 22 hours a day. Access to the library and the football field is granted in dribs and drabs. Summer temperatures in southern Sardinia reach 43 degrees. Health care is non-existent. Provocations by the prison police against prisoners and their families are constant and often result in beatings.

This life is insufferable for any human being and it is even more so for those who have never bowed their heads and have always fought in solidarity with the enemies of the system, starting with the Committee of Solidarity with the Deported Sardinian Proletariat. Paolo, like the anarchist revolutionary Alfredo Cospito, has decided to use his life as a barricade, risking his own life, has initiated a struggle that can only achieve results if we are able to carry out with the same determination a mobilization of revolutionary and international solidarity. We reaffirm our solidarity and commitment to extend the struggle so that the administration does not have peace. We remember that the officers, the prison police and the different types of jailers are co-responsible for the situation and that oppressed people have a good memory. If something happens to Paolo, they will have to assume all the consequences. Let’s not leave Paolo alone in this fight.

Anyone who wants to can write to Paolo at the following address:
Paolo Todde
CC E. Scalas
Zona industriale Macchiareddu 19
09010 Uta (CA)
Sardegna (Italy)

Some Sardinian anarchists and other comrades of Paolo

Paolo Todde is a well-known 64-year-old Sardinian comrade. He has participated in various solidarity initiatives and in antimilitarist and anarchist circles in Cagliari. In 2004 he was arrested in connection with the attack on a Forza Italia headquarters and in 2005 in the operation against the anarchist circle Fraria in Cagliari. In October 2017 he was arrested after a robbery at a post office and since October 23, 2024 he has been in preventive detention for the robbery of a betting house.

Source: https://lazarzamora.cl/llamada-a-la-solidaridad-con-paolo-todde-en-huelga-de-hambre/