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Hunger strike of prisoners facing police beating, sexual assault and deportation.

Eye-witness account by the Ukrainian activist Vlasta Viktorovna PIDPALA, just after liberation from prison on the 18th of July 2006.

On the morning of 16th of June 2006, the second day of the G8 summit in Petersburg, I took part in direct action against the G8 together with an international collective of activists. Against heavy police presence, 60 people managed to occupy the whole Nevsky Prospect adjacent to the main entrance of the Royal hotel. Trumpet signals and banners made this clear to a large number of bystanders and the official summit delegations housed in the complex. The action was successfully filmed and photographed by independent media. Despite of attempts at seizing the material, valuable parts of this documentation are now available (see on the internet www.indymedia.ru).

The occupation of Nevsky prospect began, when seemingly isolated groups of activists suddenly joint to cross the street at green lights. A white banner was exposed saying in Russian «No to Capitalism! No to authoritarian rule!». A graphic on the banner showed the official symbol of the G8 summit, with the autocrat, Peter the first prominently falling off his horse. Activists involved came from Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Italy, Spain, Finland, Poland, Moldova, Poland and the United Kingdom. We all shouted: «No G8». I could blow sum trumpet signals. The traffic lights were still green, when an agent of the OMON anti-riot special police with a body weight of more than 120 kg ran up to me, seized my hair and dragged my head down. Even now, 50 Hours later, my neck and my head hurts from the impact.

During this treatment, I could observe how the blockade chain of my comrades was split up one by one. My neighbour in the blockade, a comrade from Wales, tried to free me from the brutal officer’s grip and managed to hold him up for some seconds. At that time, lots of police ran up to us. Nevertheless, a woman from Moscow tried to help me out even then. The police began to mistreat others as well then. Comrades from Germany and Poland were caught by their heads, a young woman from Germany and a comrade from Russia got their arms caught in the aggression, and others were deliberately beaten. While the action had lasted 2 minutes, our arrest took more than 20.

On July 11, activists from Ekozashchita (EkoDefense) organized an action in the center of Petersburg to protest against the transport of nuclear waste into Russia. 13 people were arrested and they face 15 days in prison.

The summit of the "Big 8" planned not far from St. Petersburg is lessthan a week away, as well as the events against the illegitimate "clubof 8" and its policies, the Russian Social Forum in particular.Judging by the unfolding situation, the Russian structures of powerhave decided to tackle the issue with force in the last week beforethe summit.

The police have been making preventative arrests under bullshit pretexts. Two members of the bike caravan were arrested on the night of July 9 and charged with hooliganism. Another Russian activist who left his home to try to help them was also arrested.

Four other activists were arrested in Petersburg today for absolutely no reason and are to be held 10 days in arrest.

Vasily Starostin and three others from the Siberian Confederation fo Labour was taken off the train by secret services and are under arrest. Two other people from the Communist Party (on the same train were also arrested).

Today the apartment of the legal time was also raided and documents and a laptop computer were taken. Amongst the documents the legal time were collecting were powers of attorney for activists going to Petersburg.

Last Monday (26th of June) there was a very curious article by Vyacheslav Izmailov in Novaya Gazeta (#47/1169) on Chechen turncoats... apparently current Chechen political elite consists almost exclusively from people who were fighting for separatists in the 90's, and those loyalists fighting from Kremlin in the 90's are now sidelined...

Sergey Sergeyevich Naugolniy escaped from colony FGU IK-13 in Sverdlovsk region (capital of which is Yekaterinburg) 22th of June. We would perhaps never know about escape of Sergey Naugolniy, if he was not doing time in the same colony as famous political prisoner Mikhail Trepashkin, railroaded to prison due to his role in investigating the appartment explosions in Moscow in 1999 which served as a justification for launching second war in Chechnya which goes on still, almost 7 years later (see information about Trepashkin case in end of this letter). Sergey Naugolniy has been fighting back in thecolony IK-13 together with Trepashkin, and although he had only 8 months left of his sentence, after hearing rumours that his sentence might be prolongued and he might be moved to other colony, perhaps to a silent death due to medical neglect, he decided that he had nothing to loose.

Earlier this week I spent some 3 nights in protest camp in Butovo... there was hell of a lot of media attention, I suppose you could have seen some on Western TV as well. First night I slept badly because I expected OMON to stomp my head anytime as a new eviction attempt was expected early on Monday morning, but from then on I had a good time.

The minister of education has filed a complaint against the Students Initiative because for incitement to commit a crime for a bulletin that was published on their web site containing instructions how to make a paint bomb out of a light bulb. That is despite the fact that the organization of the minister of education (All-Polish Youth) has in the recent past not only talked about paint bombs, but actually thrown paint bombs, ice blocks and stones on people - including some prominent members of the current establishment.

On June 27, demonstrations took place in Athens during the Summit of OECD Education Ministers. Anarchists and students were protesting against a number of problems connected to the continued mercantilization of education. Clashes broke out due to police intervention and excesses. One document which we have received is the following leaflet.
(Click "czytaj więcej" to read more. Registered users of CIA can set an English interface.)

The leaders of the 8 most powerful countries in the so-called democratic world are meeting again this summer, this time in Russia, marking the main political event of the summer. The summit is taking place in St. Petersburg from 15 to 17 July. For Russia, this is the first expirience on such scale, and they need everything to go smoothly and without 'troubles'. On the one hand, authrities have to keep up with "Johnsons" in terms of maintaining democratic regulations and allowing the "Eight of Commons" to take place; on the other, they will escalate the repression of dissent movements with anti-Kremlin point of views. Nevertheless, as is the norm in the rest of the world, many alternative events are being planned during the summit, with the aim of providing alternative prospects for our future. Another world is possible!

Network against G8
www.spb8.net/
www.spb8.net/en

An Invitation to a 2-Day Workshop on the European-wide Networking of Anti-Repression Structures at the 2006 AntiG8 Camp in Germany

Here is just a short report on the first successful *independent* union action of ASI.
(Press czytaj dalej to read more. Registered users can choose an English interface.)

Oregon APOC political prisoner Rob los Ricos set for release June 29 2006, plans to continue writing and do Summer/Fall speaking tour.

Anarchists have carries out a number of disruptions at meetings of the League of Polish families which are being held around Poland.

Call of activists of the radical social movement "FrontAIDs" for carrying out the Day of united actions against pharmaceutical multinational corporations on July the 14th in the framework of the "Anti-G8 2006" Campaign