Roman is an anti-fascist in Brest, Belarus who was arrested in the spring of 2015 on suspicion of fighting neo-nazis two  years before.  Last fall, Roman was sentenced to an outrageous eight years in a penal colony for this “crime.”  Adding insult to injury, the court also ordered Roman to pay 3500EUR in damages to the racist swine he beat to a pulp.

The good news is that Roman’s sentence was reduced to two  years back in December, but the bad news is that Roman’s family was still responsible for paying the restitution – an amount equivalent to about eleven months’ average wages in Belarus.

This request raised some concerns with the Defence Fund’s decisions crew (50+ people & groups around the world who have donated at least 15EUR to the Fund).  Several people objected to the idea of us essentially turning over money to give to neo-nazis while others pointed out that the situation was totally unfair but not helping only meant that Roman’s family would suffer further.

We were unable to come to a consensus about the request and had to make the decision via a majority vote.  That vote was to send Roman’s family some money to help pay the restitution costs, which we have now done.

If you would like to support Roman’s family or send Roman a letter, please click here for more details.
************************************************************************

June 2016 has been the busiest month The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has experienced so far.  In just this past month, we helped seven different anti-fascists/anti-racists in three different countries, donating more than we donated in the first five months of the Defence Fund’s existence combined!

There is undoubtedly an urgent need for a standing fund to defend anti-fascists and anti-racists but if things continue at this pace we will run out of money to help in four months.  We would strongly encourage everyone that believes in the struggle against hatred and bigotry to donate whatever you can to the Defence Fund.  We’d like to specifically ask you to consider donating $5/month to the Defence Fund – we believe that’s all it would take to sustain the Defence Fund at current levels, if enough people/groups committed to doing this.

Can antifa around the world count on you to do your part?