English

On the night of April 1-2, a band of nazi thugs, including members of the nazi group Blood and Honor, went on a random spree of violence, attacking patrons of some local bars in Białystok. Shouting things about getting rid of gays and leftists, it is not clear why they chose to attack some people with knifes, or why they beat one person to death. Maybe these people had the audacity to tell them off, of maybe they were suspected of being from some non-Aryan race.

On March 31, we marched in Warsaw against various anti-social nightmares created by the capitalist disease. Despite the mixture of rain, hail and snow throughout the day, and despite rumours in the papers that we'd start a riot and occupy key government offices, which scared away some of the people, a few hundred people marched through the city, stopping at various locations to talk about problems such as eviction, reprivatization of buildings, militarism, the high cost of education, poor working conditions, anti-union repression, corruption in the government and the role of the police, etc. etc. etc.

Estonia's capital Tallinn will simultaneously host two international gatherings at the end of May. On the 25th of May, both the spring session of NATO's parliamentary assembly and the first Baltic Anarchist Meeting will start.

The aim of BAM 2012 is to exchange experience and improve co-operation between anarchists from the Baltic Sea region. Although the focus will be on the Baltic area, like-minded people from other places are welcome aswell. The three day event will have a number of lectures, presentations, discussion panels etc. On the 26th of May an anti-NATO demonstration is planned in the city center.

The exact programme is still being worked on, which means there is quite a lot of space for more lectures and workshops for people who want to speak at the event. Also we'd be glad to find more participants for panel discussions, on topics such as fighting neo-nazism in Eastern Europe, opposing NATO in post-Soviet countries, spreading anarchist ideas to a wider public without losing its true face, etc.

Free accommodation and vegan food will be provided to everyone outside Tallinn. More information can be found on the BAM 2012 website ( http://www.bam2012.org ) or via our new e-mail address bam2012/at/riseup.net

On the 4th of Feburary Pizza Hut Workers will be holding a protest outside our store in Sheffield in continuation of an ongoing dispute over working condtions, and we are requesting solidarity pickets at Pizza Hut stores, mangered or franchised.

Details of dispute to date

In April of last year Pizza Hut workers placed a collective grievance about the following issues –

· Bank Holiday Pay – The standard practice in the UK is for workers to be paid a rate of time and a half for working unsociable days, such as Boxing day, or New Year’s eve. However, Pizza Hut has reversed this in all cases now across all its stores, and now even if a worker was to be in on Christmas day they would still be paid the standard wage. We demand that Pizza Hut pay all workers time and a half for working Bank Holiday days.

The Audacity of the media and their xenophobic paranoia legitimizes the nationalists and their extreme violence.

I attended the peaceful, “Colorful Independence” manifestation November 11 in Warsaw which was half festival, half protest against the nationalist march. For the past weeks the nationalists built an extensive public relations campaign, even shooting professional pictures in a photography studio for their posters of a young man and woman, well dressed among Polish patriotic symbols. It is no surprise the November 11 Nationalist march looked nothing like the posters, besides of course the red and white flags in the background.

We assembled at 12 noon, 3 hours prior to the Nationalist march departure time. On our way to the meeting point we had heard rumors of fascists roaming the city and felt uncomfortable taking the metro across town, not knowing if right-wing gangs wouldn’t be out “hunting faggots and feminists” before we could assemble (later reports confirm this was true, with prominent local politicians attacked). Despite seeing symbols of “white power” on the clothing of groups of young men, we were left alone blending into the normal population on the streets of the city.

ZSP Anti-fascist Affinity Group - 'Nationalism is the enemy of the working class. Fascists are useful idiots for capitalists.'

First published on Indymedia.ie

A little background

11, 000 on 11.11.11, or so went the call put out by Polish fascists on the 93rd anniversary of Polish Independence. Having ceased to exist from the end of the 18th century till the end of the 1st world war, partitioned by Prussia, the Austro-Hapsburg empire and Imperial Russia, Poland, like many other European countries, has seen a resurgence of the far-right in recent years. By the end of today's events, everybody in Poland saw the true face of Polish fascists, their gratuitous violence and bile clear for all to see, despite their attempts at watered down rhetoric.

Semi-disclaimer/Personal Involvement

Do not take the following account as the be all and end all of what happend at today's demo. I joined the anti-fascist blockade in Warsaw, as part of an affinity group, mainly made up of members of the syndicalist trade union ZSP (Polish Syndicalist Union). Our initial aim was to remain mobile, avoid being corralled by cops, so as to form alternative blockades if the planned fascist route was diverted. In the end we fell into the front line to ensure sufficient strength was present to repel any attacks from our alien nemesis. The anti-fascist coalition had called for the blockers and other protestors to take position at 12 noon, so we had plenty of time to prevent people from getting to the fascist march assembly point.

I wasn't involved in organising the general blockade, nor am I active with the radical anti-fa groups (http://antifa.bzzz.net). I didn't throw any bottles, bricks, flowers, dirty socks at any numbskulls, but along with the rest of my comrades I mainly stayed put on the frontline on one side of the blockade to ensure no degenerates accessed Plac Konstytucji, where they were due to march from at 3pm. At the beginning we floated and supported forcing back right wing nationalists from breaching the blockade.

Apart from being on the front line, I handed out flyers and helped keep German anti-fa comrades informed from twitter updates posted by the anti-fa coalition

Polish fascist groups

First of all, I would like to warn you that if you visit the following Polish fascist websites then you should have either a basin at hand (to puke in) or a punching bag to vent your justified anger. In recent years, groups like All Polish Youth/MW, National Radical Camp, National Revival of Poland (NOP) amongst other bonehead neo-nazi and far right wingers (Combat 18/Blood and Honour, who are illegal in Poland, and Slavic supremacists Niklot) have strived to become a little fascist-lite, dropping their public seig heils in order to draw more mainstream right wing support and dupe the naive.

This has proved rather successful, with their march endorsed by mainstream political parties like the New Right (weirdos who thinks Jesus should be king of Poland), to high-profile journalists like Rafal Ziemkiewicz (a broadcaster with public TV, author and journalist with leading right-wing newspaper Rzeczpospolita {The Republic} and magazine Uważam Rze [I believe that). They also got support from nut job public tv talk show host Jan Pospieszalski (who eerliy looks like Berlusconi), as well as football hooligans with an axe to grind against Poland's Civic Platform gvt. and the police.

Today's demonstration and blockade

The day started badly for the anti-fa side, as 3 bus loads of German activists were corralled by cops early on, 1km from the organised anti-fa bockade point. This came after they clashed with 'patriotic' numbskulls who were en route to drool on their Hitler emblazoned underpants at Roman Dmowski's monument. Dmowski (1864-1939) is the godfather of the Polish far-right and anti-semites and most of today's Polish far-right wing groups are his vile spawn.

The guts of 2,000-3,000 anti-fascists took part in a disciplined and very successful blockade on Marszalkowska avenue, blocking the fascist's legal, planned route from marching through the centre of the capital where they intended on masquerading their politics of hatred. It's hard to estimate how many assembled to take part in their Independence Day march, but it may have been as many as 3,000. It's equally hard to estimate how many of these are involved politically with right-wing groups. Looking at TV footage this evening, once can certainly see very few brown shirts but football scarves are in abundance. It would seem that both hooligans and the cops saw today as an opportunty to flex their muscles 8 months before EURO 2012 kicks off.

As one may expect, they don't like Jews very much. Indeed, one of their banners asked: „Is Poland to become the next Palestine?” Which I guess means that we are all going to be ethnically cleansed some time soon. Ironically, a Jewish youth org. pulled out of the anti-fa's 11th of November Coalition in opposition to the inclusion of the Free Palestine movement, citing that they did not want to partake in a demo with Arab terrorist supporters. A very interesting reply was penned by the Polish Palestinian Campaign and is worth reading.

The police had at least 4 water cannons in the area and used one against the fascists. They had 2 LARD vehicles (Long range acoustic device - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device) which I think were brought or first revealed in or around Obomba's visit earlier this year. Tear gas was used, as was pepper spray. By 6pm 21 people had been taken to hospital for injuries sustained during the fight.

At many stages throughout the day anti-fascists bravely fought against provocation by nationalists, and at times also pre-empted their violence by letting them know their disgusting politics was not welcome in Warsaw and in Poland. I'm sure many sustained injuries today and I know we all wish them a speedy recovery and are grateful for their actions.

Tv and radio transmission vans were set alight by the great patriots who proved they adore free speech so much. While I was waiting on the platform to take the metro home, a bunch of fascists on the other platform attacked anti-fascists boarding the metro, much to the disgust and shock of passengers.

It's a welcome change that the cops didn't side with the fascists as they have done in previous years, arresting anti-fa acivists blockading or not intervening when fascists use violence. At least one police officer took his frustration out at a right-wing rioter by punching him in the crotch. Hopefully this has helped his sperm realise that it ain't a good idea to produce any hate-filled balls of shite.

Anyhow, Poland is a more wonderful place today due to the success of our blockade.And, Ireland won today against Estonia, guaranteeing their place in the Euro championships starting next June. So don't be put off by what I have written or the photos you have seen. For every fascist, there are legions of us anti-fascists. Nie Przyjedziecie! No Pasarán! They shall not pass!

Polish news portal Gazeta.pl - Photos/Vids. of today's battles

Anti-fa kids bloc