English

On Dec. 6, some NGOs and some political parties or "paraparties" held a parade in support of the climate change conference COP14 which is being held in Poznan, Poland. The parade started out rather modestly, with around 300 people but was joined by hundreds of conference participators, mostly internationals which doubled or even tripled its size as it reached the place of the conference.

Video

Unfortunately, the parade, which was meant as a show of "support for the negotiations" was dominated by liberal wishy-washy politics. Prior to the parade there were problems with the organizers who were panicked about potential anarchist violence (in part provoked by exaggerated macho bravado of anarchists). There were different opinions as to whether to join the march or not, but the local anarchists decided to join. Besides local anarchists, a group from Warsaw came, including samba players. Some Warsaw anarchists planned only to do their own thing and boycott the liberals' march, but on seeing that others were determined to go on the demo, they went as well. Although it is hard to tell who was in this black bloc and who was just walking near it, it was at least 60-100 people, thus much bigger than the Green Party and some of the other groups officially organizing it. (press czytaj dalej to read further)

2nd issue of Black Cross, newspaper of Anarchist Black Cross - St.Petersburg (Russia) is out in November 2008. It contains the following materials: a chronicle of anti-cop campaign in Russia (Spring 2008), news on repressions against anarchists, antiauthoritarians and radical environmentalists in France, Greece, Germany, Japan and USA. In the “history of resistance” section we print an article about a hunger strike of anarchist political prisoners in Soviet Russia in 1922. There is also letters section and a list of addresses of imprisoned activists all over the world.

You can download the paper here - http://bakunista.nadir.org/downloads/zines/a4k_piter_02.pdf
(720 Kb., 10 pages, in Russian)

Your donations for the paper and just to support our ABC group will be very appreciated.

Anarchist Black Cross – St.Petersburg
Contacts: P.O. Box 32, St. Petersburg, 194291, Russia
e-mail – a4kpiter (at) gmail.com, antifa_spb (at) riseup.net
webpage - coming soon!

2nd issue of Black Cross, newspaper of Anarchist Black Cross - St.Petersburg (Russia) is out in November 2008. It contains the following materials: a chronicle of anti-cop campaign in Russia (Spring 2008), news on repressions against anarchists, antiauthoritarians and radical environmentalists in France, Greece,
Germany, Japan and USA. In the "history of resistance" section we
print an article about a hunger strike of anarchist political
prisoners in Soviet Russia in 1922. There is also letters section and
a list of addresses of imprisoned activists all over the world.

You can download the paper here -
http://bakunista.nadir.org/downloads/zines/a4k_piter_02.pdf
(720 Kb., 10 pages, in Russian)

On the 22nd of November two nazi skinheads attacked anarchist anti-fascist activist Yura M. in Vladivostok (Russian Far East). Nazis met Yura on a bus, they recognised him, they knew that he is an active anarchist and antifascist, so after he left the bus they attacked him and hit him a couple of times. Yura used a knife to defend himself and stabbed both of the attackers, who were bigger than him. Nazis started running away - one of them soon fell down and died, the
other broke both of his legs while he was jumping off a parapet. Yura called the ambulance and waited until it arrived, after this he was arrested by cops. Yura was shocked - he did not intend to kill anyone.

Yura is an active participant of anarchist and antifascist movement. In the Summer of 2007 he participated in the antinuclear protest camp in Angarsk, Irkutsk Region (East Siberia). On the 21st of July 2007 the camp was violently attacked by Nazis, one activist was murdered (good friend of Yura, Ilya Borodaenko from Nakhodka near Vladivostok), Yura was one of the few people who were fast enough to resist attackers in Angarsk, so severely beaten and spent more than two months in a hospital, fighting for his life due to complications which were a result of neglect during first hours of his hospitalization. His health condition still remains weak, and after Angarsk event he got a disability status. But he continued his activities in Vladivostok anyway and got multiple threats from local Nazis.

Anarchist Solidarity would like to appeal for contributions for the following;

1. Tomek Wilkoszewski

Tomek's case is well-known. http://www.tomek.most.org.pl/ He was sentenced to 15 years, has been in prison since 1996 and has been trying to get early release. He would like to appeal for release again soon.

In 2006, we made the last appeal for funds for Tomek. Enough money was collected for his last appeal and there was even some extra, which we are keeping in a fund for when he is released. Unforunately, we were informed by ABC that all the money they had collected for Tomek has already been spent so we are going to pay for legal fees from the fund we have for when he is released. This means that there is no money left over for Tomek, should he be released. We would not like to see this situation.

For the second night in a row, there have been clashes between police and cross-border traders in the town of Medyka on the border with Ukraine. The traders are protesting against new strict customs regulations which limit the amount of cigarettes one can bring into Poland from Ukraine to just 40.

In eastern Poland, where there is high unemployment, cross-border trade is one of the few ways unemployed people, particularly older women, can make money. Traders have been facing more and more restrictions and repressions since the time a few years prior to Poland's EU accession and in particular after accession.

Last night, about 200 people blocked the border. Police (mostly border police) removed them by force. Those arrested were fine 50 zloties each. Tonight about 100 people returned. Police fired rubber bullets and beat demonstrators, who responded with stones and molotov cocktails. Despite the clashes, only 5 people were arrested.

The traders vow to continue their protests.

Some videos are to be found on the page linked below. The first one isn't intersting. The second one, which I watched live on TV, was CUT. Just prior to the arrest which starts the video, the cops were beating the guy and somebody else with sticks. In the third video, the women are shouting "We Want Bread".

http://www.tvn24.pl/-1,1575668,0,1,policja-wlozyla-kij-w-mrowiskouzyto-b...

Global Week of Action, April 20th-27th 2009

On a international web conference on SUN, Nov 30th, 3GMT, students fixed the date when the upcoming Global Week of Action is about to happen. Here are their results, in engl, w niemieckim jézyku and in polish.

Call for Global Week of Action: April 20th-27th, 2009
english original version, german and polish translation.

In light of global financial insecurity, more and more people ask themselves:

Is the public education system still serving the interests of the public,
or is the focus shifting to implement education systems that primarily serve private and business interest?

Tomorrow is the start of UN Climate Change conference in Poznan. Some anarchist groups would like to participate in demo organized by some NGOs and left political groups but now there is scandal. One of the organizer groups became SMS - Young Socialdemocrat Assocation. It is the youth group of party SdPL. SdPL is the social democrats which before made coalition with left SLD and capitalists from Democratic Party. People from this group have ambitions to take over power from SLD and be in government, but they are losers.

SdPL always tries to make "the real left" party and new coalitions. Again this year they on one hand say they are real left, on other hand, make new coalition with capitalists from Democratic Party. They also are making coalitions with Greens. Greens also make this demo.

The organizers say they don't allow the anarchists to cover faces in demo. But it is worse. The member of SMS says that he is afraid that the hooligans, that is anarchists, will come and make the violence during demo. He cries that police say they don't intervene with these anarchists and propose a system like in Malmo ESF where there are the police who "talk" with the "agressive" demonstrators and take them out of demo. Member of SMS says he himself cannot imagine talking with agressive people.

"By July next year it will be clear whether Bourgas-Alexandropolis oil pipе-line is profitable for Bulgaria". This statement had been made on a press conference by representatives of the "Trans-Balkan Pipeline" company. The briefing was initiated a little after the collapse of the presentation of the company due to protests. Protesters attacked representatives of the company, which is behind the project "Bourgas-Alexandropolis". According to schedule on 12 November 2008 at 14:00 o'clock the vice-minister of Public works Kalin Rogachev, representatives of the trans-national company "Trans-Balkan Pipeline" and expert ecologists were supposed to present the project to the media as well as the guarantees for the observation of the environmental standards during the project construction and exploitation. However few hundred protesters from Bourgas manage to bring the presentation to breakdown. They were standing in front of hotel "Bulgaria" and were chanting: "Traitors", "Mafia", "Out of Bourgas", "Go away". They were waving flags and singing songs. When the delegation of the meeting came, part of the protesters broke inside the conference hall inside hotel "Bulgaria" and started shouting against Kalin Rogachev. Тhe protesters caused chaos and turmoil and in a short bit the a decision was taken to cancel the meeting.

On the morning of November 11, 150 police officers, most of which
belonged to the anti-terrorist brigades, surrounded a village of 350
inhabitants on the Millevaches plateau, before raiding a farm in order
to arrest nine young people (who ran the local grocery store and tried
to revive the cultural life of the village). Four days later, these nine
people were sent before an anti-terrorist judge and "accused of criminal
conspiracy with terrorist intentions." The newspapers reported that the
Ministry of the Interior and the Secretary of State "had congratulated
local and state police for their diligence."

Everything is in order, or so it would appear. But let's try to examine
the facts a little more closely and grasp the reasons and the results of
this "diligence."

No Repression for Standing up to Fascism!
Once again, the Polish state protects fascists and antisemites.

On November 11, the far-right antisemitic group ONR (Radical National Camp) held a march in Warsaw. The group is known for violent attacks on homosexuals, extreme nationalism and antisemitism.

ONR organized protests during the "March of the Living", an annual march where Jewish teens (and others) from all over the world go to the Auschwitz death camp. During their protest, some of the people held signs that said "Heil Hitler" or had other nazi and antisemitic slogans. It also organizes annual commemorations of a pogrom in Myslenice. Various formal organizations, including political parties, religious associations and the like have appealed to the authorities on numerous occasions to uphold the laws forbidding the public propagation of fascism and antisemitism but this is usually to no avail.

Often the marches of ONR lead to counterdemonstrations but these are normally accompanied by strong police measures against the counterdemonstrators. ONR has also adopted the tactic of not disclosing the real location of their marches much in advance, which would make it difficult for people inclined to register a legal demonstration to do so. In addition, the police do not usually allow counterdemonstrations in the same place.

In the early morning on the 11th november the french police conducted one of the biggest police raids in the latest history in the name of counter terrorism against the left in france. The police searched several buildings and appartements in Paris, Rouen, Limoges, the La Meuse region and in the village of Tarnac in central France. During this raid ten people were arrested and taken into custody, nine of them are now confronted with serious charges of terrorist conspiracy and malicious mischief. The official reason for the raids are sabotage actions on the high speed train (TGV) network conducted with grapples in the night of the 7th to the 8th november in four different places in France.

Anarchists made on 20 November picket held in Krakow in front of the offices of Civil Platform party. This party is leading government and making the health system privatization. A few dozens of people made the protest and proposal to make transformation of hospitals into the worker cooperatives. The members from Workers Initiative and Anarchist Federation from Krakow were and Bielsko-Biala workers from hospital and members of ZSP from Silesia.

DON'T LET THEM CRIMINALISE ANY FORM OF CRITICISM!

Once again, capitalist society happily violates its own legality in the affair being known as the "anarcho-autonomous movement", following the arrest of 10 people as part of an investigation into "acts of sabotage" on SNCF railway lines: the presumption of innocence blithely ignored; the use of
ultra-repressive measures provided for by anti-terrorist legislation in a case which is evidently nothing to do with terrorism; charges of criminal association on the basis of a mere collection of political documents without any concrete facts to back up this "evidence"! Large sectors of the media, the political world and the judiciary allow this to happen, or even approve, showing that the "State of law" is only really applied to the powerful in this society that is so
fundamentally unjust!

On the 12th of October a confrontation between Nazis and anarchist
anti-fascists took place in Kazan.

Approximately at 6 p.m. 2 antifascists were hangin' at the "Koltso"
mall. They were suddenly approached and menaced by 12
Nazi boneheads. After a short conversation Antifa guys stood up and went
out of the mall. They moved about 500 meters away from the mall to a
park where they were confronted with the same boneheads and fascists
from the mall. After the confrontation the fascists remained lying on
the ground. Eventually one Nazi was hospitalised with his lung and liver
pierced. One of Antifa guys has been caught by cops. Now he is remanded.

We really need your help. We are the antifascists of Kazan and we're
trying to gather a sum of money sufficient to hire a proper lawyer.
Support the efforts of your comrades!