Posts Tagged ‘Russia’
Welcome to Father Frost against Putin IV Festival in Helsinki (Finland)
Sunday, December 11th, 2016
From 7th to 8th of January 2017 fourth Father Frost against Putin-festival will be organised in Helsinki. Exact festival location will be announced later.
As in earlier years, various Russian grassroot initiatives will present themselves in festival. You should visit festival, if you are interested on what has happened in Russian anarchist, feminist and queer movements during year 2016.
All festival events will be open to everyone. (more…)
Tags: ABC Helsinki, Alexey Gaskarov, Anarchist Gathering, Finland, Helsinki, International Solidarity, Russia
Posted in Autonomy
Interview with released anti-fascist prisoner Alexei Gaskarov (Russia)
Tuesday, November 15th, 2016
Alexei Gaskarov was released from prison 27th of October, here is a great interview which was translated from Snob by the Russian reader.
Alexei Gaskarov: What Politics?
Alexei Gaskarov: Many People Ask Whether I Am Going to Take up Politics.
But What Politics Are There Nowadays?
Olesya Gerasimenko
Snob
November 1, 2016
Anti-fascist Alexei Gaskarov has been released from prison after serving three and a half years in prison for alleged involvement in the Bolotyana Square riot in Moscow in 2012. Snob asked Kommersant special correspondent Olesya Gerasimenko to meet with Gaskarov to discuss the Bolotnaya Square case, life and education in the penal colony, and the death of the protest movement.
“Why would they ask me about organizing a riot if they knew no one organized it?”
Was your trial fair?
I regret we agreed to be involved in it. Like Soviet political prisoners, we should have stood with our backs turned and kept our mouths shut, and not treated it as an attempt to get at the truth. I had illusions after Khimki. [In 2010, Gaskarov was arrested and charged with attacking the Khimki town hall during a protest in defense of Khimki Forest, but the court acquitted him. — Snob] Several videos showed clearly that the incidents involving me happened before the riot kicked off, according to police investigators themselves. In the end, I ticked off the evidence, the judge nodded her head, but there was no reaction.
The entire trial looked as if the decision had already been made, the sentence written out, and let’s get this over as quickly as possible.
Read the rest of the interview here.
Tags: Alexei Gaskarov, Bolotnaya Case, Khimki, Russia
Posted in Interviews
Communique from Anarchists from D Wing, Korydallos Prison, Athens, for the struggle in Syria (Greece)
Wednesday, October 5th, 2016
1st of October
A minimum response on the call-out for the day of Rage against the massacre at Aleppo.
Even if there are only ruins left at Aleppo, the bombings haven’t stopped. Even now, after 5 years of bombs and sieges, people still live in this city. Some because they didn’t manage to leave, some because they didn’t see a better future at Mediterranean’s seabed, some because they refused to abandon the revolution against the dictatorship of Assad, that started with the Arab Spring. At Aleppo’s ruins a guerilla warfare is taking place, that until now, Assad with Hezbollah, Iran and Russian military machine haven’t achieved to defeat.
If the things that happened with the repression of Spanish Revolution by Franco and the Nazis were the rehearsal of World War II, probably the war in Syria is an image of the post-industrial future on earth. A future, where the democratic excuses collapse and the absolute violence prevails. A world, that despite the gigantic military power of the tyrants, the most effective way to control the insurrection is still by division. A situation of despair, where people in order to defend themselves and survive, are organized in groups manipulated by generals, who only seek more power and who lead the revolting crowds away from the fight against the regime and into a fight for control of the war zones of their interests.
The result is a constant war, a profitable business for the capitalists, who sell weapons and armament to war zones, where trade and economy still exist.
The example of Syria’s punishment is a clear warning to everyone in the world, who even thinks about revolting.
In this chaotic total war, the reference point for us, are the few guerilla groups, organized outside the control the “moderate Muslims” of Al Nusra, or the “cosmics” of the FSA, who are both manipulated from the dominant powers of imperialistic competition, like USA, and both have the same target, a big piece from the power reallocation.
In a situation where people are cruelly attacked from one imperialist, and seek safety from the actions of its rival, we are affected by some revolutionaries, like the Leon Sedov Brigade, who stand against any imperialist and propose the solidarity and unity among the repressed of this world. We are inspired from the attempts of organization from the Revolutionary Coordination Committees against the dividing of the uprising, from the manipulant organizations.
Those rebels who try to self-organize in a battlefield with bombs and chemical weapons, who are still fighting despite the heavy losses, who prefer to die rather than surrender to the murderer Assad, who define and defend their freedom at all costs, they spread the message that in every condition struggle is possible, if there is the will to fight.
They spread a message that the powerful military machines of Al Assad, Iran, Lebanon, Isis, Russia and USA haven’t achieved to defeat them for more than 5 years.
That explains the cruelty of the attack to Aleppo, the capital of revolution. After smaller towns were besieged and lead to starvation, the same tactic was attempted at Aleppo. But there were dynamic demonstrations where banks were expropriated, actions outside the guidelines of the army parties, which control the masses. That’s why Aleppo is now being totally destroyed.
A major factor for the ongoing slaughter in Syria is the absolute absence of social resistance to this war, from the people of the imperialistic countries that invaded Syria.
European people, not only they do not react to the war, but the majority consent to the closure of the borders for refugees, who, if they survive from the death in the sea, are the only fighting, like the great example of Syrian refugees in Paris who went on hunger strike, demand the termination of the war.
We don’t have a clear picture of what happens in movements in the rest of the world, but we are going to talk for the Greek case. Because after all, the economic crisis and poverty here in Greece, except from radicalizing parts of the people, lead more to the pacification. On the one hand we have people who take care of the refugees, rescuing them with their boats, independently from political parties and non-governmental organizations, and on the other hand there were beatings, fascist attacks and actions against the refugees. No big anti-war demonstration though, as happened in the past, because now economy is the only concern. Using it’s left mask, Syriza combining fear management and harsh repression, lead social resistances, in general, to surrender. And now Greek state is placing refugees to concentration camps, obeying the demands of the European Union. Sadly, the solidarity to the refugees is limited to charity, without any reference to the revolution, that lead to war.
For the lefts, the “anti-american” feelings and the belief that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” doesn’t allow them to stand against Assad, while the majority of the anarchists, lacking analysis, refer exclusively to Rojava.
At the same moment, refugees give their own fights like the uprising in Moria, where after destroying a large part of the infrastructure, they escaped, but rather than run, as usually happens, they gathered and demonstrated, resulting their arrest.
In our opinion, we seek the expansion of the solidarity to the refugees, in a more general context, that will regard the war in Syria as an example of an uprising and how capitalists dealt with it, in order to be able to exclude the proper conclusions from it.
It’s obvious, that the unity of the rebels doesn’t come from the big, centralized, hierarchical organizations, that end up fighting each other for the biggest share of power. The only hope is a horizontal organization, that doesn’t allow to any ambitious leader to sell the fight. The decentralized network of collectives that fight with their one will to a common direction, coordinating when possible, exchanging information, know-hows, arms and political ideas.
The views that see hierarchical organization as a necessary condition to achieve victory in a revolutionary war, were tried in the past and were lead to defeat or to the reproduction of the same social systems that they hypothetically fought.
The example of Syria, where small guerrilla groups and no centralized armies stand against the Russian military machine and the alliance of local armies, proves that what is missing is not the proper leadership, but a new mindset of organization. And that applies to every field of organization of revolutionary action, whether it is guerilla warfare, or the spread of revolutionary ideas, that do not persuade anyone because they are signed by the biggest federation, but are spread through initiative, close human contact, and co-action.
The massacre in Syria won’t stop, unless we do something to stop it.
Unless we face it as a part of the repression that we all have felt. If we don’t feel the tenacity of the rebels who don’t surrender. If we don’t realize that the distance from suffocating because of tear gas in demonstrations to the endless gas chamber of Syria is short. As long as we abstain from the streets, we give our permission to this bloodshed.
When captivity and death become universal condition, we are called to make insurrection and solidarity a universal condition.
EVERY DAY, A DAY OF RAGE
WAR AGAINST AUTHORITY ON EVERY INCH OF EARTH
Anarchists from D’ wing of Koridallos Prison (Greece)
Tags: Al-Nusra Front, Aleppo, Analysis, Athens, Brigade León Sedov, Hezbollah, International Solidarity, Iran, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Korydallos Prison, Lebanon, Letter, Migrant Struggle, Rojava, Russia, Social Insurrection, Syria, USA, War
Posted in Prison Struggle
Summary of international week of actions for Russian anarchist and anti-fascist prisoners
Wednesday, August 31st, 2016
Between 1st and 10th of July, international days of solidarity for political prisoners of Putin’s police state took place in 21 cities of 10 different countries. Although state pressure is growing, new delirious «anti-terrorist» laws are passed instead of improving life of citizens, activists of Moscow Anarchist Black Cross, Autonomous Action and other anarchist and anti-fascist initiatives organized a wide international campaign to defend our comrades imprisoned in Putin’s gallows.
For full report with working links and pictures, check original at
http://avtonom.org/node/32772
Tags: ABC Moscow, Antifa, International Solidarity, Russia
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Helsinki joined international days of action for Russian political prisoners (Finland)
Friday, July 8th, 2016
After Tel Aviv, Helsinki joined the solidarity campaign. A picket in the center of the city was organised. 1st of July, in the opposite side of the railway station, around 10 anarchists stood with a banner “Freedom to Crimean prisoners” (Vapaus Krimin vangeille) with pictures of Oleg Sentsov and Alexandr Kolchenko, and “Freedom for all political prisoners” (in English). Few hundred leaflets were spread. Goal of the action was to spread information about constant repressions in Russia against those in disagreement with Putin’s politics, and against ongoing bloodshed in Ukraine. Leaflets had the following demands:
– Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and both sides of the conflict must fulfill the obligations of the Minsk II peace treaty
– Russia should release all Crimean tatars, anarchists, antifascists and other imprisoned anti-war activists. All illegally detained people in Donetsk and Lugansk areas should be released.
Photos
Tags: Finland, Helsinki, International Solidarity, Russia
Posted in Prison Struggle
Join international days of solidarity with Russian anarchist and antifascist prisoners 1st to 10th July, 2016
Sunday, May 15th, 2016
When mass civil protests in Russia were defeated in 2011-12 the Putinist police regime started open political repressions against militants of social and political movements, including anarchists and antifascists. Many activists have been sentenced to prison terms in the course of the last 5 years in Russia.
We call on comrades from the whole world to show solidarity with Russian anarchists and antifascists – prisoners of the Putinist police state, and distribute information about the international solidarity decade as widely as possible, maybe organise an event in your own town.
It could be an info-party where letters could be written, a film show, a fund-raising event, a benefit gig, a protest action at the Russian embassy in your own country, a solidarity action – only your fantasy is the limit. (more…)
Tags: ABC Moscow, International Solidarity, Russia
Posted in Prison Struggle
About Ilya Romanov situation (Russia)
Sunday, May 15th, 2016
Ilya was recently 14 days in a hole. Prison administration has said that their superiors have ordered that everyone sentenced for “terrorist” crimes must be put on a special pressure. Ilya is not beaten up by guards, but there is a constant pressure in form of administrative punishments.
Moscow ABC has hired a lawyer from a local village to help Ilya with this, as this was the cheapest alternative.
Tags: ABC Moscow, Ilya Romanov, Russia
Posted in Prison Struggle
Anarchist Ilya Romanov sentenced to 10 years (Russia)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2015
About the case
Anarchist Ilya Romanov, who was arrested in the early hours of October 26th 2013 in the city Nizhny Novgorod after a premature explosion of a homemade device resulting in the amputation of his left wrist, was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The trial which began on June 16th 2015 in Nizhny Novgorod local court, it was tried by judges of the Military Judicial Council sent from Moscow, because the target of the unsuccessful alleged attack by the comrade was a military office. On August 6th, after about 20 or so sessions, the decision was announced: 10 years sentence to hard labour and a 110.000 ruble (about 1.600 euro) fine. (more…)
Tags: Ilya Romanov, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Posted in Prison Struggle
Izhevsk: Oleg Serebrennikov, anti-fascist and anarchist, needs help and international solidarity (Russia)
Monday, July 13th, 2015
Hello, my name is Oleg Serebrennikov. I’m 32 years old and I’ve been anti-fascist and socialist over the last 15 years, so I am one of the few people who was at the origin of the anti-fascist movement in Izhevsk.
During all that time, the Nazis and the police have been preventing me from leaving a normal life; there were many attacks, threats and acts of intimidation from the neo-Nazis. Apart of that, the local police was trying to initiate criminal proceedings etc.
On 23 February 2004 after a protest against the war in Chechnya, some Nazis attacked me and almost killed, there were about 20-25 people, for me it ended up in quite a sad way – I was taken to hospital and diagnosed a brain contusion with hemorrhage, craniocerebral injury and a number of other problems. Unfortunately, I have not received any adequate treatment at an early stage of the illness, so, a few years later my health condition started deteriorating dramatically.
(more…)
Tags: International Solidarity, Izhevsk, Jan Krasnovski, Neo-Nazis, Oleg Serebrennikov, Repression, Russia
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Court hearings on the case of political prisoner Ilya Romanov started June 16 (Russia)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015
On June 2 preliminary hearing regarding the case of anarchist political prisoner Ilya Romanov from Nizhnii Novgorod was conducted in Moscow District Military Court. Ilya took part in the court session via video conference link. The court rejected all the petitions of the defendant’s lawyer, Evgeny Gubin, including the petition to cancel his “non-disclosure” pledge, which the investigating bodies made him to sign.
Moscow District Military Court starts hearing of the Romanov’s case on June 16 at 11:00. Sessions will be held in the building of Nizhegorodskii Regional Court (Russia, Nizhnii Novgorod, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya str., 17).
Nizhnii Novgorod regional department of the Federal Security Service (“FSB”) accuses Ilya of preparing a terrorist attack (the “attack” didn’t occur at all) and an attempt for justification of terrorism. The very fact of such double “might-have-been terrorism” in Russian province (where nobody has seen a single terrorist throughout the recent history at all), performed by one political activist, tells directly about political bias in this case.
(more…)
Tags: ABC Moscow, Ilya Romanov, Nizhni Novgorod, Repression, Russia, Ukraine
Posted in Prison Struggle
About the anti-fascist struggle after Maidan (Ukraine)
Monday, April 20th, 2015
This is a translation of a brochure written by 2 anti-authoritarian communist groups, Vida (Rivet) and Proletconnect about the anti-fascist struggle in Ukraine after the Maidan events. Events unfold on very high speed and although this brochure discusses the Ukrainian reality until June 2014, to the opinion of the translator it offers insight on the background of the conflict and the international geopolitical significance of these events. It offers a different interpretation compared to western media and even parts of the western left.
In USSR times…
“…Its (Kiev’s) buildings are famous all over Russia. It was a center of religion. And now it is a semi-ruin. Here the Germans showed what they could do. Every public building, every library, every theater, even the permanent circus, destroyed, not with gunfire, not through fighting, but with fire and dynamite. Its university is burned and tumbled, its schools in ruins. This was not fighting, this was the crazy destruction of every cultural facility the city had, and nearly every beautiful building that had been put up during a thousand years. Here German civilization did its work, and one of the few justices in the world is that German prisoners are helping clean up the mess that they made.
Tags: Analysis, Insurrection, Kiev, Maidan, Proletconnect, Russia, Ukraine, Vida (Rivet), War
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Video: Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – Phoenix Project – An account of the FAI/IRF Project 'Phoenix' (Black International)
Sunday, April 12th, 2015
English subtitled version of the film giving the account of the early part of the Phoenix Project, international project of sabotage and attack with over a dozen hits in a variety of different countries.
Dedicated to Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai, Olga Cell FAI/IRF, who took responsibility for the laming of CEO Roberto Adinolfi of Ansaldo Nucleare.
“We are here, where everything starts now.”
The Project of ‘Phoenix’ is the unfolding of a hidden map marking one of the routes to the Atlantis of practical theory. An unknown and lost continent that exists beyond the edges of the burning cities of the interzone. Created through action, dialogue and ideas and organised informally with anarchic principles of permanent autonomous attack, revolutionary solidarity and internationalism. A sequence of attacks by different radical direct action groups around the world, breaking the silence of isolation and striking back again against the prison societies of the techno-industrial system.
The imprisoned members of CCF are charged with instigation for the attacks, Spyros Mandylas and Andreas Tsavdaridis were arrested and charged for act #4 in the project, sending a parcel-bomb to the former commander of the anti-terrorist agency, Dimitris Xorianopoulos, whilst Christos Rodopoulos is reportedly accused of the mailing of the parcel bomb to Dimitris Mokkas, chief prosecutor in the CCF case, as act #6.
The Phoenix project is now renewed through the 2015 attacks in Chile, Czech Republic and Greece, with the comrades within the territory of Czech Republic initiating the campaign “Let’s destroy repression“. The story of the Phoenix continues to be written…
SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON
NOT A MILLIMETER BACK
NINE MILLIMETERS TO THE COPS’ HEADS
Tags: "Let's destroy repression" - 2015, Alfredo Cospito, Andreas Tsavdaridis, Ansaldo Nucleare, Black International of Anarchists of Praxis, Chile, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire : Imprisoned Members Cell, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI), International Conspiracy for Revenge, Italy, Mexico, Nicola Gai, Nucleo Olga FAI/FRI, Phoenix Project, Poland, Roberto Adinolfi, Russia, Spyros Mandylas, UK, Videos
Posted in Library
International solidarity with anti-fascist Alexander Kolchenko (Russia)
Sunday, March 15th, 2015
Alexander Kolchenko is a Crimean anarchist, social activist and antifascist who is held in captivity by the Russian authorities. Along with other Crimean activists, he has been kidnapped by the Russian FSB (ex-KGB) and is now detained as a political hostage in Lefortovo jail in Moscow. He is charged with committing “acts of terrorism” and “belonging to a terrorist community”.
Why is Alexander Kolchenko in jail?
Alexander, who has undeniably proved his antifascist stance over many years, is facing preposterous accusations of belonging to “Right Sector”, a radical Ukrainian right-wing organization, whose real role in Ukrainian events is blown out of proportion by Russian official propaganda.
In modern Russia any activist — left-wing, anarchist or liberal — can be slandered as a member or sympathizer of “Right Sector”. This situation is comparable to the hunt for nonexistent “Trotskyists” under Stalin, or the McCarthy witch-hunt for communists. Putin’s authoritarian and nationalist regime, which uses in its propaganda everything from religious prejudices and conspiracy theories to outright racism, shamelessly steals “antifascist” rhetoric. And yet anyone who is considered bothersome is called a “fascist”, even if he/she stands on the opposite side of the political spectrum. (more…)
Tags: Alexander Kolchenko, Crimea, International Solidarity, Repression, Russia, Ukraine
Posted in Anti-Fascist
Interview with Radical Theory and Practice about the cooperative and its Emma Goldman project (A-Radio)
Wednesday, March 11th, 2015
The Anarchist Radio Berlin made an interview with the Russian-speaking
anarchist publishing cooperative Radical Theory and Practice (RTP) about
the cooperative, its recent project of translating Emma Goldman’s
memoires into Russian and a lot more.
You’ll find the audio (to listen online or download in different sizes) here:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/2015/03/11/a-radio-in-english-rtp-cooperative-on-emma-goldman-project/
The length is: 29:35 min.
Enjoy! And please feel free to share!
You’ll find other English language audios here:
http://aradio.blogsport.de/englishcastellano/
A-Radio Berlin
ps.: Please note: We are always looking for people willing to lend us a
hand with transcript translations from Spanish or German into English as
well as people able to do voice recordings – in order to amplify our
international radio work. You can contact us at
aradio-berlin/at/riseup(dot)net!
Tags: Anarchistisches Radio Berlin, Berlin, Emma Goldman, Germany, Radical Theory and Practice (RTP), Russia
Posted in Interviews
Appeal to support Ilya Romanov (Russia)
Saturday, November 8th, 2014
Dear friends! We ask you to support Ilya Romanov, Russian anarchist accused of ‘terrorism’, who has already spent a year in prison. ABC-Moscow included him in the list of anarchist political prisoners.
On 26 October 2013 46-year-old anarchist Ilya Romanov was wounded in the city of Nizhnii Novgorod. The explosion which occurred late at night severely injured his left hand and burned his face. Ilya was taken to hospital where doctors amputated his arm. Romanov explained to the police that he unwarily used a pyrotechnic device. In December 2013 Romanov was charged with Article 205 and Article 30 of the Criminal Code of Russian Federation (“attempt to commit a terrorist attack”). (more…)
Tags: ABC Moscow, Ilya Romanov, New Revolutionary Alternative, Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia, Sergey Berdyugin
Posted in Prison Struggle