Punamust

For foreign activists:

The English version of the webpage is not updated very often, in fact one can say it's not updated at all, the text available in English, "report on anarchism in Estonia" is now almost two years old. Nevertheless, the collective of red 'n' black is still functioning and growing.
If you are a foreign activist coming to Estonia or just interested in red 'n' black, feel free to send us a mail. We are always interested in sharing thoughts and experiences, also meeting with activists from abroad.
The mailbox of red 'n' black is still located in the same adress - punamust@punamust.org
Feel free to drop us a letter if you have anything relevant to say.

Report on anarchism in Estonia
by Sauree

Some months ago we opened a website (www.punamust.org ) with name PunaMust (in english: Red'n'Black) the aim of the webpage was to unite anarchists and create anarchist movement in Estonia. It's all in a beginning stage, but we are making slowly someprogress. There are about 20 people around the Estonia (mostly Tartu and Tallinn) who are actively participating in that movement right now and there
are about 100 people who are taking part of discussions in our web-forum.

About some actions:
in 8th of April we took part of the demonstration against police violence in
Tallinn. There was about 150 people - mostly young punks.
in 1st of. May we handed out anti-consumerist leaflets in front of big malls in
Tallinn and Tartu.
in 4th May we were guests in TV3 talk-show "Kahvel" (one of the most popular
TV talk-shows in Estonia), we talked about anarchism and our organization.
On 15th of May we had a joint-action with "Green" bicycle club Prussakov to
protest against abusing the public space by the private security company
Falck who is using one of the most important town square's in a Tallinn as a
parking lot. We occupied a parking lot - legally - we bought parking tickets
and "parked" our bikes and flowerpots to the parking spaces for one day. It
got quite a lot positive media attention. Afterwards we left without paying
for the parking tickets but as I know no charges were indict.
This Monday (29. may) we organized in a Tartu a free movie night about
"anti-globalization movement".
We had a chance to use one of the big auditoriums of the University of
Tartu.

Also there was a "Anarchist philosophy" class in University of Tartu in the
spring semester (by the guest lecturer dr Paul McLaughlin), some people from
our movement participated on that.

In the beginning of July there will be a bike caravan against G8 crossing
the Estonia and we try to organize a campsites for them and to organize a
Infoday about G8 and "anti-globalization movement" in Tartu in that time.

Most of the Estonians don't want to hear anything about "socialism". but
this is changing slowly. and we also want to do our best to change that.
There have been no real anarchist or (antiauthoritarian) socialist tradition
in Estonia so we have to start from scratch. It's a lot of work - due to
negative stereotypes about "socialism" and anything "leftist". But we are
still positive and believe that we can change things - we know it all takes
time and a lot of energy, but I believe that we have a real and functioning
anarchist network in about 2-3 years or so in Estonia.

In our movement in PunaMust is the "collectivist" or "socialist" wing in
majority. We still recognize the importance of individual freedom and are
not willing to sacrifice it in the name of "collective" or "socialism". Real
socialism must respect individual freedom.