English

On April 26, there will be a march in the center of Minsk. You are invited to attend.

21 years ago, 26th of April 1986, a reactor melted down in Nuclear power station in Chernobyl of Ukraine. Belarusans were to suffer most from this worst nuclear disaster in history of mankind.

"Human beings are not fully conscious of their real lives. Groping in the dark, overwhelmed by the consequences of their acts, at every moment groups and individuals find themselves faced with outcomes they had not intended […] What should be abolished continues, and we continue to wear away with it. We are engulfed. Separated from each other. The years pass and we haven’t changed anything."
(Guy Debord, On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time, 1959)

"We have invented nothing. We adapt ourselves, with a few variations, into the network of possible itineraries. We get used to it, it seems."
(Guy Debord, Critique of Separation, 1961)

Alicja Tysiac has three children. She’s got extremely impaired vision and is legally disabled, raising her children alone on a disability check. She lives with the three of them in a one-room flat 29 meters small and received 653 złoties a month – about 165 euros. In Warsaw where prices are already quite high. This woman is now one of the biggest villianesses in Poland. Her crime? She wanted to have an abortion.

Before 2000, Alicja was told that it was dangerous for her to get pregnant because of her unusual problem with her eyes; a pregnancy might even cause her to become blind. It was recommended that she get her tubes tied, but despite the doctors’ recommendation, nobody would perform the operation, Sterilization, like abortion, is a mortal sin in Poland where abortion has been illegal since 1993, except for in cases of rape, incest or illnesses endangering the health of the mother. Despite the latter possibilities of obtaining an abortion upon a doctor’s recommendation, most doctors will not perform the abortion and there have even been cases where doctors lie to the woman about her health or the health of her child.

On March 21 – the International Day against Racism - fascist morons from NOP (Polish National Rebirth, the Polish arm of the international Third Positionists) decided to hold a demo against immigrants and for a white Poland.

About 100 assholes mobilized – and 300 anarchists and antifascists counterdemonstrated. The police surrounded the anarchists and arrested two people for supposedly assaulting an officer.

(What follows is the leaflet spread in Škoda/Volkswagen factories in three towns in Czech in February 2007; KPK distributed this leaflet also in Polish because there are many workers from Poland working there)

The economy is growing. Commentators say this situation is the most suitable one for deepening of reforms the aim of which is to further worsen conditions of the working class (employees of factories, offices, schools, the unemployed etc). Also the current “collective bargaining” in Škoda Mladá Boleslav which is primarily related to wages and wage structure is happening in a situation when growth in Škoda’s production is one of the highest in the Volkswagen group.

But this situation is not favourable only for capital. Workers have a really good chance to turn it to their advantage through their independent struggle, ie without unions and parties.

The Anarchist Federation called for days of antiwar actions to be held from March 18-20. Today the first ones took place.

In Warsaw anarchists picketed in front of the American embassy and marched to the Presidential Palace. People drew action to the connections between war and the military industrial complex, capitalism and power. Besides protesting against the war, the demonstrators also protested against the installation of a US anti-missile base in Poland. A similar demonstration took place in Lodz. In both cases, a Food Not Bombs event also took place. In Bialystok a FNB picnic took place.

On the anniversary of the war, demos will also take place in Torun and Poznan. In Poznan, the protest will also be against the F-16 military base.

Today over 12,000 teachers from around Poland came to Warsaw to protest the policies of the government, both in regard to its financial committment towards education workers and to the outrageous actions of the Minister and Vice-minister of Education.

The teachers are demanding an immediate pay raise of 7%. When the current Minister of Education was instated, teachers were promised this raise and talk of the raise even occurred during the elections. Although teachers were given a smaller raise, it fell short of the promised 7%. Currently it is not uncommon for a teacher with 20 years’ experience to earn about 300 euros per month.

On March 9, there was another solidarity picket in front of the Danish embassy in Warsaw, this time to demand the release of everyone arrested during the Ungdomshuset protests. Among those present was one of the members of the Anarchist Federation who was arrested and deported from Poland.

This is the second picket in Warsaw and there was one direct action involving burning and smashed Lego cops and prisons. Protests have taken place in other cities in Poland as well. On March 8, people demonstrated at the consulate in Krakow. (Photo from this protest.) Earlier pickets also took place in Wroclaw and Poznan.

Capitalism attacks us on many fronts in our daily lives. We are forced to endure the current system of capitalism and its oppressive power destroys, exploits, isolates and dehumanizes us. It’s definitely time to get rid of it.

To move forward in the international struggle against capitalism, the following call goes out from the international meeting against the G8, held in Warsaw (Poland) from the 9th to 11th of February with people from more than 15 different countries. Please spread it as widely as you can.
Representatives of the G8 members and other major economic powers will meet in the north of Germany on the 6th-8th of June 2007, closeted behind a barrier of fences and police soldiers. Simultaneously thousands of people – opposed to its neo-liberal policies – will congregate to act in numerous and diverse ways and places.

Activists from Student's Initiative held a protest in Warsaw against the Ministry of Education's "Zero Tolerance" program. This program is one of the cornerstones of a suite of ideologically-inspired moves by the fascistic, arch-conservative Minister of Education, Roman Giertych.

Part of the ideological program of the fascistic Al-Polish Youth, the organization which Giertych re-founded after years of inactivity, is to penetrate schools in different manners in order to indoctrinate youth in their values. These values include "God, Honor and Fatherland" - but also spill into the values recently propagated (note bene: in their mild form!) recently throughout Europe by the Giertychs - Roman and his father Maciej.

A number of solidarity pickets were held around Poland: in Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw. The protestors demanded an immediate release to the prisoners and hands off Ungdomshuset. A solidarity billboard was also put up near the Danish Embassy in Warsaw. A protest letter was sent claiming that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark" and promising to step up protests if the police actions continue. Two members of the Anarchist Federation are amongst those arrested; one is to spend 27 days in arrest.

On Wendsday 21st this month number of people from such organizations like: Red Collective-Left Alternative, trade union August 80 and New Left participated in a picket in defence of tenants’ rights organized by the campaign “Flat is a right, not a merchandise” which took place in front of Ministry of Justice.

The bulldozers will start destroying the Rospuda Valley wetlands – unless they meet resistance. We intend to put up a fight to save this natural space and to show the government that people can fight back against their idiocy and corruption.

Anarchists, environmentalists, some NGOs and just plain citizens have been involved lately in stepping up the protest against the destruction of the Rospuda Valley Wetlands in Poland.

Autonomous Action and other anarchists are organizing together with Russian eco-activists against Sochi candidature for 2014 Olympic Games. Currently campaign is centered on issues of ecology and socio-economic rights of the local people, but we are also developing more fundamental critique of commercial sport. There has already been one action in Moscow - 19th of January few dozen people picketed Russian Olympic Committee, and organized a guerilla theatre, where Misha the Olympic bear devastated Sochi national park (http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=635).