English

from the "after the greek riots" blog

On the night of September 26 fifteen cops raided the house of Mohammad Atif Kamran, a 25-year old migrant living in the neighbourhood of Nikaia in Athens, shouting and beating him and his family. At the time, there was a complaint against Kamran for a child beating. Eyewitness neighbours say he was dragged from the house in such a way that his head would bang on every step on the way out. He was taken to the local police station, which became a torture chamber: He was held for two days, during which he was subjected to severe beatings (while tied hand and foot) and electrical shocks. On the second day, the person that had placed the original said they did not recognise Kamran and that the police had arrested the wrong person. Kamran’s family and neighbours knew of his torturing by the police but fear prevented them from taking him to a hospital, as he was undocumented. On October 10th, Kamran passed away.

Dear activists, participators and media workers,

We are informed that, on 7th of October , while we have been sieging İstanbul from different angles the IMF and the World Bank has finished their meeting in a haste. So we as the ungovernable of resistanbul gathered here to announce our own riotistanbul decisions against the decisions the governors made.

We are announcing our proposal as an economic and social program for a libertarian anti-capitalist way of life that we have already started to work for public, as a proposal for a way out of global capitalism. Our program is formed by some resistance tecnics that can dig down the roots of the capitalist world system that has colonized all parts of life.

* Different organizations and individuals from Venezuela with tradition in the social struggles linked to different anti-authoritarian and critical leftist approaches, with whom we have converged at the space called INSURGENTES, set position before the exhumations of the Caracazo.

After 19 years the Venezuelan government, through the Attorney General's Office, makes a second exhumation of the remains located at the mass grave of La Peste in the Southern General Cemetery in Caracas, where are placed part of the victims of the popular rebellion known as El Caracazo, happened during 27th and 28th February 1989. Thus, the Venezuelan state complies with a ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which in November 1999 sentenced to investigate the facts and punish those responsible, locate, exhume and identify the remains of the victims to deliver them to their families, as well as compensate those families for the violation of the right to life.

Comrades from ZSP Wroclaw and the authors of the Paris Commune Blog have launched a new web portal called Self-Governing Wroclaw. The purpose of the service is to provide a place for news and ideas about grassroots activism and self-management. It is a place to present the point of view of people who are often excluded from the mainstream media.

The service started just a few days ago. It is open but with moderation. Some of the articles include information about the free transportation campaign, about protests of patients against the closure of a hospital, about police abuse, the city raising costs of day care and borrowing money to build a football stadium and other news of local interest.

In Wroclaw took place another information action as part of campaign for free public transportation (niekasuj.pl). The action was organized by Wroclaw group of ZSP along with other people who go into campign,

There were the flyers given out and collected the signatures for making referendum about free transport. Many passengers supported this action and signed petition supporting referendum.

More people joined campaign. There is profile on Nasza Klasa (it's Polish version Facebook). Already more than 200 people are on it after just two weeks.

ZSP says that people are tired of bad ideas of politicians to spend money like 20 millions zloty for fountain when transport doesn't work, houses falling apart, etc.

Photos from action under. (Press "czytaj dalej")

The government, in a rush of "get tough" legislation, passed a spate of controversial laws. One of them is about the chemical castration of pedophiles. The law pratically guarantees that pedophiles will be chemically castrated. And pedophiles are considered all people who rape or sleep with anybody under 15. (Sleeping with such people is considered statutory rape.) These laws, which are very harsh, were criticized by many NGOs in Poland and some governments or EU institutions. All of the political parties played up the issue. even the left which tried hard to show that it could be just as draconic as the right. Only one PM out of 403 voting was against.

Two days later, a prominent Pole, Roman Polanski, was arrested and faces extradition to the US. For raping a 13 year old girl. Right away, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that they will protest this and even ask president Obama to grant clemency for Polanski.

There was an action on 26th September in front of the Hamburg immigration office, which is also a kind of "reception" and deportation center. The reason was to present a new project, "Infomobil for refugees and migrants", which will start next tuesday to support those who come to Hamburg to get their rights.
There were speeches and music, and we talked with some refugees. Among them, there were two Afghan women, who have been in Pagani prison, one of them during the time of our noborder camp!
You finde more about our action and project (except the flyer only in
German) on:
www.fluechtlingsrat-hamburg.de

Protest Action Today against Migrant Detention Centre
in Ýstanbul.

On 26th September a group from Ýstanbul Rhythms of Resistance samba band and from the Resistanbul network (The Coordinatýon of Resistance Days against the ÝMF and World Bank meetings in Ýstanbul) staged a solidarity protest action and a press conference in front of the Yabancýlar Misafirhanesi (Forgiener Guesthouse) or migrant detention centre in the Kumkapý district of Ýstanbul.

This detention centre was the scene of recent revolts and other acts of
resistance by the migrants imprisioned there.
For background information on this see:
http://bianet.org/english/minorities/117175-refugees-protest-no-food-for...

The demonstration went well in terms of response from the migrants who
came to the bars of the prison windows and also in terms of press
coverage and the responses from the people who live in the neighbourhood.
When we have had a chance to rest, I will post more links to coverage of the action.

The original call out for todays actýon can be viewed here:
http://resistanbul.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/call-for-action-in-support-o...

Thursday session of city council Wroclaw was obect of attack by members of Initiative for public transport. (NieKasuj - don't pay ticket)

Activists want to draw attention to this question. They went onto the room of city council but they were kicked out and told that no politician support this idea. But they received the statement with the arguments for free public transport. Then activists went away from politicians to main square in Wroclaw to give leaflets and information about campaign to people. Many people support.

Campaign was started by Wroclaw ZSP. Also some other people support this campaign. Page of campaign is www.niekasuj,pl.

Using fight against illegal migration as a pretext, Turkish government carries out
policies based on repression and deprivation of liberty toward refugees and migrants. Locked in the so called Yabanc?lar Misafirhanesi, migrants can be held for more than one year in inhumane conditions waiting for their expulsion of Turkey.

On the 20th of September, prisoners of Kumkap? Misafir Hanesi rebelled themselves against their detention conditions and the mistreatments they suffer from the police. We have to be in the front of Kumkap? Yabanc? Misafir Hanesi to show the detainees solidarity and to give them support in their struggle against the deprivation of their basic rights.

We call for the closure of these shameful detention places. We call for the end of repression, detention and deportation of migrants.

We call for a demonstration against Turkish migration policies and detention of migrants on Saturday 26, at 12:00 o’clock in front of Kumkap? Misafir Hanesi.

Revolt at Pagani. We just heard that people imprisoned in Pagani have taken direct action. The three cells at the ground level are open, imprisoned migrants have flocked to the yard of the prison, shouting “Azadi, Azadi” (freedom). Also, women detained on the first floor are leaving their cells. Inside the cells, matrasses have been burnt, and the bars from some cell windows have been removed. More and more people from Mytilini are coming to Pagani, press and TV is there also.

Update (4:38 CEST): Demands of the prisoners are that they receive their release papers immediately. Right now, there are about 600 people detained in Pagani prison, today, a bus with about 40 people arrived. Police is gathering behind the prison

Update (7:01 CEST): The prefect (governor of the island) has been at Pagani and promised that ALL imprisoned refugees will receive the white paper in the course of the next days. The migrants have returned to their cells, except the minors, who are still in the yard since they don’t believe the prefect. The promise/statement of the prefect was filmed and will soon be published. The prefect is inside Pagani inspecting the premises.

Update (7:30 CEST): A new photo of the minors who refuse to go back into their cell. athens.indmedia also has another article which gives a more detailed timeline of what happened.

This is a developing story, check back with us for updates. If you know Greek, check this http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1082012 article and the post at http://noborder09lesvos.blogspot.com

Refugees kept in a refugee camp of the Aliens Department in the Istanbul district of Fatih/Kumkapı revolted to draw attention to their poor living conditions.
Emine ÖZCAN
emine@bianet.org
Istanbul - BİA News Center
21 September 2009, Monday

About a hundred refugees broke the barred windows of the 4-storey building they are kept in and threw their beds, blankets, brooms, plastic plates and plastic bottles out of the windows to push for some administrative action.

The refugees shouted their problems from the windows to members of the press, claiming that they are not given food. The Kumkapı refugee camp accommodates refugees who are supposed to be sent back to their home countries.

In 2001, the last time that the Beograd Pride parade took place in Belgrade, it was brutally attacked by fascists. I remember that then anarchists from ASI were there are were in a fight with the fascists. Our comrade Rata was one of the people who loudly and publically condemned the fascist terror tactics.

Over the past 8 years, LGBT activists in Serbia have been thinking about how to organize another parade and guarantee the safety of its participants. They had planned a parade for today. Amongst the participants were to be local antifascists. But the fascists have been actively organizing to attack the march again. They have even been organizing their terror attacks on the open internet. And therefore the authorities cancelled the parade "for the safety of its participants". However this came after a number of attempts to force the organizers to cancel themselves, which included telling them that the police would not only not protect the parade, but also that the organizers would be liable for any damage done during the parade. This would include any damage done by hooligans or fascists who attacked them.

In response, the organizers demanded that the authorities go after the fascists, nationalists and hooligans who were openly threatening them. Although making threats, as well as hate speech, is forbidden, the authorities are turning a blind eye and calling this "public discussion".

– A reporting from autonomous participants from different cities in Germany

There is a lot of talking about success in the reports bout the No Border in Lesbos 2009. We don't agree completely with that.

First, the story about the development, the idea and the following preparation was somehow puzzling for us. We at least see now – after the Camp – some things more clear. That's how we see it now: In Germany parts of the antiracist movement invited for the No Border and the activists from different political scenes started to prepare for travelling. In Greece the dictio (network for global social rights) was part of the preparation but only mobilised their people. Greek anarchists didn't know about the preparation till December, though the greek anarchists are an important part of the political movement about migration and the work with immigrants. Only a few anarchists knew about the upcoming camp, mostly because german autonomous friends told them about the idea.

Twelve people died in a methane explosion at Ruda Slaska-Kochlowice mine in Poland. Dozens of others were injured, some very seriously.

The "accident" again raises the issue of poor safety in Poland's mines, where making money often takes precedence over human life.

Shortly after this incident, a miner showed videos that he made showing how the methane levels could go well over the safe level, but the management of the mine would ignore this. It looks as if there have also been, like in other mines, incidents of falsifying records.

In April a miner managed to document the methane levels on video camera and provide evidence that people were being forced to work in unsafe conditions. The management ignored this. He then reported this to various law enforcement agencies, including the ABW. (National Security Agency). On April 16, the ABW informed the police and the Mining Office of these offences. Yet nothing seems to have been done.

The Wroclaw section of ZSP, which has started a campaign for free and good public transportation, would like to hold a city-wide referendum on the subject. The mainstream press wrote about this and there is an internet poll. So far, the public is supporting this idea.

What's more is that there has been some support of this idea from unexpected places. A specialist in the newspaper explained how the idea is realistic ... but "of course" is not in favour of the transport strike.

Warsaw ZSP will also be promoting the idea of collectivization of public transport this weekend. during Warsaw Public Transport Days events which proceed the "Day Without Cars".

www.niekasuj.pl