England: anarchists unite against threat of repression

 

Anarchists in the English city of Bristol are standing united and defiant against the threat of major police repression.

Bristol Anarchist Federation have issued a powerful statement in response to an anti-anarchist witch-hunt launched by the local police force.

The right-wing Bristol Post newspaper is trying to whip up a reactionary lynch mob, urging its readers to "support the police in their campaign against anarchists".

This latest police/media declaration of war on freedom and dissent comes shortly after a successful attack by the Angry Foxes Cell on a nearly-complete police firearms centre in Portishead, near Bristol. The £16m centre was almost totally destroyed by fire. Nobody was hurt.

This was, of course, itself a reaction to rising levels of repression, both in Bristol (England's sixth biggest city) and globally.

The Cell's statement on Bristol Indymedia states: "In the City around us the lock down increases; there is a general atmosphere of rising fear and powerlessness; there is more and more surveillance, and security guards with handcuffs appear on more and more doors. Tensions across the world are simmering as people lose faith in the system."

The Bristol Post front page ran with the headline “Targeting the Enemy Within” and presented a report by Avon & Somerset Police with the Stalinesque title “Our Five Year Ambition”.

The cops said they were preparing a “crackdown on rioters and extremists” and were “monitoring several potentially dangerous groups”, with The Post claiming that the police had launched a series of operations to “gather intelligence about subversive organisations”.

As Bristol Anarchist Federation point out, the newspaper article conflates “domestic extremism” with rioting like the kind seen in Stokes Croft in 2011; acts of vandalism like the attack on the Evening Post building shortly afterwards and even the counter demonstration to a racist English Defence League march in July 2012.

Interestingly the Post article also adds “non-peaceful” animal rights and environmental protesters to their vague definition of “extremists”.

Bristol AF say: "This is clearly an attempt by the Avon & Somerset Police to threaten anarchists and other radicals in Bristol. The Bristol radical community will potentially face increased levels of repression at the hands of the police.

"This could be anything from increased surveillance to being picked up for bogus charges while on demos; through to our homes being raided and possessions being seized.

"Without any evidence to track down the people they want to apprehend, the cops are likely to take out their frustration on public facing activists. Even the release of this report itself is an obvious attempt to scare them.

"We must not be driven into a state of paralysis for fear of the police. If they are expecting us to respond by being intimidated into inaction, by giving up on activism or by becoming fractured and turning on each other they are going to be sorely disappointed.

"Whilst this kind of repression does require a response, it will be a response routed in action, in solidarity and in unity. We need to be prepared, look out for each other and up our game when it comes to our own security.

"If the Police come knocking we will not answer their calls. We have nothing to tell and nothing to gain. Whilst we may not always agree with everyone’s tactics and philosophy amongst the wider radical scene the cops can Fuck off if they think we will turn on our comrades.

"The police and the state, as always, try to fracture us, they will try to prey on our weaknesses. We stand in unity and solidarity with all those who fight against oppression, capitalism and the state. We must create a culture of mutual aid and solidarity and most importantly: Resistance. We will support each other through whatever the state throws at us because we know that no matter what we will come out stronger."

Down with the Egyptian state!

"Down with the military and Al-Sissi!  Down with the remnants of the Mubarak regime and business elite! Down with the State and all power to autonomous communities!  Long live the Egyptian revolution!"

This is the powerful and defiant message put out by Egyptian anarchists in the face of the horrific repression being inflicted on the people by the new military regime - the latest local incarnation of the same inhuman power-hungry entity.

Here is the full statement from Tahrir-ICN:

The events of the past couple of days are the latest step in a sequence of events by which the military can consolidate its hold on power, aim towards the death of the revolution and a return to a military/police state.

The authoritarian regime of the Muslim Brotherhood had to go. But what has replaced it is the true face of the military in Egypt – no less authoritarian, no less fascist and for sure more difficult to depose.

The massacre carried out by the army against pro-Morsi supporters in Nadha Square and Raba’a has left around 500 killed and up to 3000 injured (Ministry of Health figures- the reality is likely much higher).

It was a pre-orchestrated act of state terrorism. It’s aim is to divide the people and push the Muslim Brotherhood to create more militia’s to revenge and protect themselves. This in turn will enable the army to label all Islamists as terrorists and produce an “internal enemy” in the country which will allow the army to keep the military regime in an ongoing state of emergency.

They go after the Muslim Brotherhood today, but they will come after anyone who dares to criticize them tomorrow. Already the army has declared a state of emergency for one month, giving the police and military exceptional powers, and a curfew has been declared in many provinces for the same amount of time from 7pm to 6am. This gives the army a free hand to crack down on dissent.

It is a return to the days before the revolution, where emergency law had been in place since 1967 and it provided the framework for wide-spread repression and denial of freedoms.

The character of the new regime is clear. Just a few days ago 18 new governors were appointed, the majority of which hail from the ranks of the army/police or even remnants of the Mubarak regime.

There has also been an ongoing attack on workers who continue to strike for their rights (such as the recent army attack and arrest of steel workers on strike in Suez). The military regime is also hunting for revolutionary activists, journalists have been beaten and arrested, foreigners have been threatened against being witness to events.

Both local and global media has told half truths and built narratives supportive of a political agenda. The counter-revolution is in full flow and it knows how to break the unity of the people in its effort to divide and conquer.

In the past two days there has been a rise in sectarian reprisals, with up to 50 churches and christian institutions attacked. The army and police were not seen protecting these buildings of the Christian community.

It is in the interest of both army and the Muslim Brotherhood to stoke tensions and create fear and hatred in the people. They will fight for their control of the State as people’s blood fills the streets.

We condemn the massacres at Raba’a and Nadha Square, the attacks on workers, activists and journalists, the manipulation of the people by those who vie to power, and sectarian attacks. For the revolution to continue the people must remain united in their opposition to the abuses and tyranny of power, against whoever it is directed.

Down with the military and Al-Sissi!  Down with the remnants of the Mubarak regime and business elite! Down with the State and all power to autonomous communities!  Long live the Egyptian revolution!

Free Kostas Sakkas!

A global solidarity campaign is underway to support Greek anarchist prisoner Kostas Sakkas who has been on hunger strike since June 4.

Kostas was arrested in December 2010, one of the earliest in a wave of arrests targeting the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire”.

Both Kostas and the CCF deny he was ever a member, and Kostas has separately taken responsibility for his political activity as an anarchist.

Held ever since, his initial pre-trial detention maximum expired eighteen months later, in the summer of 2012 - yet it was extended by another year, to June 2013.

At that time, a court of appeals in Athens ordered the extension of Kostas’ detention by another six months, now solidly stepping outside the boundaries that the legal apparatus had set for its own self.

On June 4, Kostas went on a hunger strike in protest and this has prompted a wave of support.

More than 6,000 people joined  a solidarity demonstration on June 29 which began in Monastiraki and crossed through most of central Athens.

A moto-solidarity action is being staged in Athens on Friday July 5. For updates see From the Greek Streets.

Total opposition - interview with anarchist writer Paul Cudenec

In this written interview with The Vast Minority,  writer Paul Cudenec calls for anarchists to unite in "total opposition" to the global capitalist system. He says he is trying to unearth the primal force behind the philosophy and argues that anarchism has the potential to become a new "religion" for the current age.

 

Q: Your book The Anarchist Revelation is very much focused around presenting an anarchist spirituality. Why?

That’s the question I hopefully go some way to answering over the course of some 150 pages! In short, there are two separate, and yet interwoven, strands. Firstly there is the individual question – how can an alienated individual such as an anarchist, who is sane enough to find the contemporary capitalist world insane, carry on living in that world? Involvement in the anarchist struggle is part of the answer, but you also need something more than that, some greater perspective to fall back on in times of doubt or isolation.

I think anarchism, historically, has always offered a depth of vision that can sustain and propel an individual through adversity but, if we start to regard anarchism not as a life-philosophy but as a narrowly defined social movement, we will lose contact with that vital force. 

Secondly, there’s the spiritual depth of the anarchist movement as a whole. To me, it stands opposed to the modern materialist mindset at a fundamental level. It’s not just that we reject all those assumptions about the legitimacy of authority, property or privilege, but we also reject the blinkered and one-dimensional thinking of the current age. 

Anarchy is lateral thinking, creative thinking, poetic thinking in many ways, and in that it has a lot in common with something like Sufism, the esoteric strand of Islam. It’s not stuck on the one level - like Marxism is, for example. And I think we need to reconnect to that imaginative and fluid side of anarchist thought.

Q: But there’s a difference between the vitality or fluidity of a philosophy and this idea of “spirituality”. Why does that come in? Why does it have to come in?

Spirituality for me is all about using the parts of our mind that are left to wither away in a purely materialist society, where nothing it considered valid unless it can be “empirically” proven to be so. These are the powers we need to reignite, on both an individual and collective level.

Q: But what about the religious aspect to “spirituality” that you do evoke in your book? Are you suggesting that these unused parts of our mind are something to do with a supernatural element?

Not supernatural, no. But my definition of what is natural, and real, would go a lot further than what’s generally understood by that. As far as religion goes, the only religion I’m promoting is anarchism. OK, maybe it’s not quite a religion at the moment, but I think it has the potential to be, if it doesn’t cut itself off from the less materialist aspects of its philosophy that take it up in that direction.

Q: So what kind of religion would anarchism be? A religion with no god?

There doesn’t have to be a “god”, in the sense in which it’s normally meant in the West. It’s all about an holistic vision, understanding that on every level of existence everything is interconnected and ultimately part of the one entity. On a human level, this is already the anarchist position – mutual aid, co-operation, solidarity and so on. On a planetary level this is the environmentalist position – the Gaia idea of a living Earth. On a cosmic level, this becomes a Buddhist or Taoist idea of the ultimate unity. 

I think that anarchism naturally embraces the holistic approach on the other levels, as well, thus expanding itself into a complete vision of life, rather than remaining merely a social or economic programme spiced up with a confrontational attitude.

Q: Is this a bad thing, then, a “confrontational attitude”? Should anarchists be adopting the quietism of Eastern mystics?

Not at all. A confrontational attitude is essential for anarchism. I think we need to be more confrontational, in fact, in contexts other than street battles with the police or fascists. We need to be more confrontational in our refusal of the moral claims of the state, by stating clearly that we don’t accept that they have the right to rule us, to jail us, to control us in any way. Of course, we recognise the reality that they can do so, in the same way that a large man with a knife has the physical ability to rob me in the street, but we should make it clear that we don’t buy into their lie that there is any moral legitimacy behind this. 

We also need to be more confrontational in attacking the limits that are placed around possible futures. Although it’s often a tactically good idea to work with reformist campaigns, if only to help stem the tide of increasing capitalist domination, we should never stop talking about the completely different society that is our vision and inspiration. It doesn’t matter if people can’t grasp that this could ever happen, that they are conditioned by society to think that such a future is not only undesirable but also impossible. 

We have to keep our black flag flying so that the vision stays alive, at least on an abstract level, and it’s there for people to turn to one day when they finally realise that the only alternative is going to be a future of slavery and misery for the vast majority of humanity. What we need to reclaim is the total opposition to the current system that was historically offered by anarchism. There’s such a strength in that. 

Also, by the way, there’s nothing necessarily quietist or pacifist about faiths like Buddhism – take the Tibetan monks in their struggle against Chinese occupation, for a start. Many religions are used by authorities to promote obedience and submission, and Buddhism is no exception, but that doesn’t reflect on its innate qualities or its potential as an aid to human liberation.

Q: Total opposition? That sounds quite full-on!

In the context in which I just used it, I meant total opposition in a philosophical sense – attacking the current death-system at its roots, rather than focusing on trimming it back here and there. But I do think that’s what we need, at every level. Otherwise nothing will change, all possibilities of improvement will remain blocked and the future will be like this, only a thousand times worse.

Q: There’s a strong environmental current running through your work. Would you describe yourself as an eco-anarchist?

I have done, yes, though I’m tending now to focus on just being an anarchist, which I think is enough. For a start, I can’t see that anything other than anarchism – and the total opposition that it involves – is going to save the planet. The system is not going to reform itself or voluntarily concede any power or control. I also don’t feel there’s a need for any of us to qualify our anarchism with adjectives. 

I’ve been playing around with the notion of an Anarchy Threshold, this being the “finishing tape” that all anarchists are aiming at, the point at which humankind can said to be liberated. The idea is that we don’t really have to argue about what happens after that, because, as anarchists, we’re saying that the people around at the time (whenever it actually happens!) will decide that, by their actions and views, among themselves. 

So it doesn’t matter if my vision of a better future is one without factories, while my comrade sees the need for a continuation of some form of industrialism. Neither of us will be in a position to decide that. As anarchists we’re not about imposing our views on others anyway, even if we could do so. So it’s purely theoretical – our only input is in putting forward our own visions of how life could be. If we have faith in a free humanity, we will have faith in the future it will create for itself in an anarchist society. Personally, I can’t see that a post-capitalist world would be industrial in any way, because industrialism is capitalism. 

The capitalists are right when they say that without the profit incentive, we wouldn’t have what they call “progress” – it’s the forces of money and power, feeding off each other, that have spawned the industrial hell in which we are all forced to live today and the moment that there is no more capitalism there will be no raison d’être for factories, oil refineries, nuclear power stations, shopping malls and so on. 

I don’t have to argue too much with other anarchists about what a future anarchist society would look like, though. Firstly, because it’s not my call – or theirs. Secondly, because I know, in my own heart, that an anarchist society would not be an industrial one. It will all unfold in due course. And in the meantime, before the Anarchy Threshold has been reached, our only aim should be to work towards that point with a diversity of tactics and a respect for each others’ personal visions.

Q: Isn’t that a bit naïve, to think that anarchists could all work together happily ever after?

It’s not naïve to think we should all work together – or at least not snipe at each other. If we can’t, then perhaps that’s something to do with the egos of individuals concerned (not just inflated egos, but fragile ones as well) – and that is something that can be addressed by an individual spiritual approach that is a microcosm of our social struggle, as I describe in the book. It’s about rediscovering our strength and clarity, both individually and collectively.

Q: The language in your book can be quite academic at times – do you feel that this can create a barrier to people understanding what you’re saying and limit the numbers who are going to read your message?

Firstly, I’m not a professional academic and I try to make my meaning clear to readers. It’s difficult, though, to express complex ideas without using the short cut of a certain vocabulary – otherwise the end result would be both long-winded and a little patronising. 

Secondly, when you’re quoting writers like Herbert Marcuse or Karl Jaspers it would be strange if the surrounding text was in a completely different register – the flow wouldn’t be there. Thirdly, part of theme of The Anarchist Revelation is the lowering of the intellectual level and the denial by the narrow positivist mindset of people’s ability to think clearly and profoundly. Dumbing-down the language in which that sort of argument is expressed seems to me like something of an own goal! 

It’s not just a question of vocabulary, but also the way ideas are expressed. Everything doesn’t always have to be compressed into soundbites. I do take on board the criticism to a certain extent, though, and I would like to work on ways of communicating these ideas in a way that they can be more readily absorbed.

Q: Finally, your book draws on the work of a whole range of writers, many of whom are not anarchists. How would you respond to criticism that you risk diluting the anarchist message and confusing it with unrelated strands of thought. Is this some kind of “post-anarchism” that you’re serving up?

No, it’s not “post-anarchism”. If anything, I’m trying to unearth an “Ur-anarchism”, a primal force behind the philosophy, hence my foray into the worlds of hermeticism, alchemy, Sufism and Taoism. 

I think it’s a mistake to imagine that anarchism is, or should be, some kind of self-contained bubble of consciously-limited political analysis. It’s not airtight, but porous. Anarchism influences the world around it and it is, in turn, influenced by that world. The fact that an idea is expressed by a particular individual does not make it “their” idea anyway; it’s all drawn from the common cultural resource of humanity. 

So if a writer expresses something that seems valid and interesting to me, I don’t have to agree with everything else they ever wrote or did in order for me to make use of it in my work and acknowledge where I read it. To me, it’s actually exciting to find anarchist ideas bubbling up in unexpected places, as it makes it clear that our vision is not as peripheral as the thought-authorities would like to make out. 

Anarchism is the political label we give to a massive underground river of suppressed thinking that is flowing under the streets of our materialist capitalist civilization, waiting to rise up and sweep away its factories, prisons and city halls. Ultimately, it’s the life-force itself and as such it’s unstoppable.

Paul Cudenec’s new book The Anarchist Revelation is published by Winter Oak Press. For more information see www.paulcudenec.blogspot.co.uk and winteroakpress.blogspot.co.uk

#June30 - time for a second revolution in Egypt!

 

EGYPT will once again take centre stage in the dramatic global uprising against neoliberal tyranny this weekend.

Opponents of the US-backed Morsi regime will be taking to the streets on Sunday #June30 to call for a second revolution - a year after the increasingly unpopular and despotic leader came to power.

There were already chaotic scenes in Alexandria on Friday, as revolutionaries were attacked by government supporters, with reports of at least one death and many injured.

The Muslim Brotherhood in the coastal city was also said to have been set on fire (see photo) - previously such attacks have been claimed by Egypt's thriving anarchist Black Bloc movement.

Rumours were also circulating on the internet that the regime was planning to shut down Egyptian TV channels over the weekend in a desperate bid to retain power, reminiscent of the final days of the Mubarak regime.

Officials have already ordered the arrest of a talk show host and demanded a TV station be shut down for "inciting mutiny in the army and for insulting the armed forces and the police".

One live feed from Egypt on Sunday is being offered here, starting 6am Cairo time.

Anarchists on the streets of London

 
Despite brutal police repression, anarchists in London succeeded in getting across a powerful message of anti-capitalist resistance ahead of the neoliberal G8 summit in Fermanagh.

Defending the Black Bloc

A PROMINENT activist in Occupy Wall Street has spoken out against "dangerous" criticism of the Black Bloc tactic by "violent peace-police".

David Graeber writes in N+1 magazine in response to an article called “The Cancer in Occupy,” by one Chris Hedges.

He tells Hedges in his open letter: "I am appealing to you because I really do believe the kind of statement you made is profoundly dangerous.

"The reason I say this is because, whatever your intentions, it is very hard to read your statement as anything but an appeal to violence. After all, what are you basically saying about what you call 'Black Bloc anarchists'?

"1) they are not part of us

2) they are consciously malevolent in their intentions

3) they are violent

4) they cannot be reasoned with

5) they are all the same

6) they wish to destroy us

7) they are a cancer that must be excised

"Surely you must recognize, when it’s laid out in this fashion, that this is precisely the sort of language and argument that, historically, has been invoked by those encouraging one group of people to physically attack, ethnically cleanse, or exterminate another—in fact, the sort of language and argument that is almost never invoked in any other circumstance.

"After all, if a group is made up exclusively of violent fanatics who cannot be reasoned with, intent on our destruction, what else can we really do? This is the language of violence in its purest form. Far more than “fuck the police.” To see this kind of language employed by someone who claims to be speaking in the name of non-violence is genuinely extraordinary."

Graeber pulls apart Hedges' claim that the Black Bloc tactic gives cops the excuse they need to attack protesters and depict them as violent.

He writes: "If the police decide to attack a group of protesters, they will claim to have been provoked, and the media will repeat whatever the police say, no matter how implausible, as the basic initial facts of what happened.

"This will happen whether or not anyone at the protest does anything that can be remotely described as violence. Many police claims will be obviously ridiculous – as at the recent Oakland march where police accused participants of throwing 'improvised explosive devices'—but no matter how many times the police lie about such matters, the national media will still report their claims as true, and it will be up to protesters to provide evidence to the contrary.

"Sometimes, with the help of social media, we can demonstrate that particular police attacks were absolutely unjustified, as with the famous Tony Bologna pepper-spray incident. But we cannot by definition prove all police attacks were unjustified, even all attacks at one particular march; it’s simply physically impossible to film every thing that happens from every possible angle all the time.

"Therefore we can expect that whatever we do, the media will dutifully report 'protesters engaged in clashes with police' rather than 'police attacked non-violent protesters'. What’s more, when someone does throw back a tear-gas canister, or toss a bottle, or even spray-paint something, we can assume that act will be employed as retroactive justification for whatever police violence occurred before the act took place."

And Graeber points out the even Gandhi, hero of the peace police, would not have taken the extreme line adopted by Hedges and his kind.

He writes: "Gandhi and his movement were regularly denounced in the media, just as non-violent anarchists are also always denounced in the media (and I might remark here that while not an anarchist himself, Gandhi was strongly influenced by anarchists like Kropotkin and Tolstoy), as a mere front for more violent, terroristic elements, with whom he was said to be secretly collaborating.

"He was regularly challenged to prove his non-violent credentials by assisting the authorities in suppressing such elements. Here Gandhi remained resolute. It is always morally superior, he insisted, to oppose injustice through non-violent means than through violent means. However, to oppose injustice through violent means is still morally superior to not doing anything to oppose injustice at all.

"And Gandhi was talking about people who were blowing up trains, or assassinating government officials. Not damaging windows or spray-painting rude things about the police."

Black Bloc take to the streets of Cairo

AN EGYPTIAN anarchist movement has emerged on the streets with a wave of firebombings and street fights.

The new wave of revolt is also sweeping through other Arab countries, with anarchist groups in Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and elsewhere.

Anarchists have been present in Egypt before, during, and after the revolution, but until today, they have yet to organize a mass grouping under the banner of anarchism, explains blogger Ryan Harvey.

The Ultras of Egypt’s football clubs have for years been associated with anarchist ideas and actions, and they are widely credited with having initiated the level militancy that brought down the Mubarak government in February of 2011.

This week anarchism left the graffitied walls, small conversations, and online forums of Egypt, and came to life in Cairo, declaring itself a new force in the ongoing social revolution sparked two years ago with multiple firebombings against Muslim Brotherhood offices. Later, the government shut down the “Black Blocairo” and “Egyptian Black Bloc” Facebook pages, but they were soon re-launched.

“Wait for our next attacks as we respond to the closing of our official page…” they posted in a statement posted online (translated below).

On Thursday the black bloc made its first mass-appearance in Tahrir Square, and, shortly after, firebombed the Shura Council (Egyptian Parliament), tore down a section of the protest-barrier walls leading from Tahrir Square, and, with others, engaged in fighting against security forces.

These statements and actions are in preparation for tomorrow’s second anniversary of the revolution, and for what some are calling “a whole new level” or protest in Egypt.

Anarchism and the black bloc concept has grown in recent months across Egypt, Stemming from various anarchist grouping/circles that coalesced during the revolutionary period. A massive distrust among the youth of all political parties, a sharp critique of the role of religion within governance, and the inspiration of anarchist resistance around the world (largely symbolized by the late-2008 revolt in Greece) have helped it catalyze.

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Below is the statement of Black Blocairo in regards to the removal of their websites, their firebombing attacks against government offices, and their calls for revolt:

“Yesterday and after we finished our event, we met some of the revolutionary movements and we decided to unite together in our next attacks, hence we did our first two attacks, as we told you yesterday:

1- Setting fire to Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) online office.

2- Setting fire in the Ikhwan office in Al-Manial street in Cairo.

 And we announced our revolution since today in Al-Tahrir Square untill Egypt and it’s people get their rights back! Life, Freedom and social justice!

Black Blocairo, The Hooligans

Wait for our next attacks as we respond to the closing of our official page…”

f

EGYPTIAN ANARCHIST LINKS:

Revolution Black Bloc (Egyptian anarchist page)

Black Blocairo (Black Blocairo’s new page)

Black Bloc Egypt

d

OTHER ARAB ANARCHIST LINKS:

Anarchists of Arabs  (Arab anarchist page)

Moroccan Black Bloc

 Anarchists in Lebanon

Tunisian Anarchist Movement

Tunisian Anarchist Organization

Tunisian Anarchist

Syrian Anarcha Feminist Movement

Syrian Anarchists

Tahrir ICN (English European solidarity page)

Massacres are heading our way

THE MASSACRE of striking miners in South Africa is a sickening foretaste of what is in store for us all as neoliberalism collapses under the weight of its own impossibilities.

Black lives are considered by the global elite to be of less importance than white ones, so the media impact of the mass murder has not been as great as if it had occurred in, say, France, or Britain.

But make no mistake - this sort of thing will also happen in Europe and North America, as the demise of capitalism accelerates.

The logical connections are there to be made. The company which owns the mine at Marikana, Lonmin, is itself a British company, for instance.

And this has, after all, always been the truth behind the facade of western 'democracy' - the authorities reserve the right to kill you if you threaten their hold on power.

Over the last 15 years or so plutocracy has set about turning itself into plutofascism to combat the inevitable global meltdown and uprising - and, to justify that, it has redefined its enemy. Dissent now equals terrorism.

One recent small example of this shift was experienced by two UK anarchists returning from a conference in Switzerland.

Reports Libcom: "On returning from the St Imier gathering, two anarchists, one a member of the UK Anarchist Federation, were detained for nearly two hours at Heathrow by SO15 (counter-terrorist) intelligence who initially refused to identify themselves to the detainees.

"During the detention, the anarchists were told that their normal rights did not apply, and had their names, addresses, email addresses, DNA, photographs and fingerprints taken. The detained anarchists were also forced to sign forms – which may or may not be legal – waiving their rights to silence and a solicitor. Police also conducted a thorough search of personal possessions, photocopied literature and passports and took information from phones and cameras.

"During the detention, the police constantly accused the anarchists of lying about involvement in criminal activity and alleged that they would be conducting follow-up police action against one of the detained anarchists.

"In addition to this, SO15 officers asked a number of inflammatory, irrelevant and offensive questions, including ‘what would you do if someone raped your mother?’ evidently in an attempt to cause emotional upset and illicit angry or violent responses. One member (28) who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals from the police, said “We were treated like criminals.

"I told them I went to the congress as I am an amateur journalist and I write articles about activism. They saw my note book, camera and Dictaphone but they said I was lying.” One officer said ‘You said you are an anarchist, I’ve seen anarchists on the news, they are violent, throw molotov cocktails and disrupt people’s lives not write articles”."

Fortunately, though, all the repression merely confirms to many more people that the only way ahead is the destruction of capitalism itself, and this instinctive resistance continues to bubble up all the time - for instance in Amiens in northern France earlier this week (see photo below).

Anarchists firebomb two banks in Italy

ANARCHISTS have claimed responsibility for firebomb attacks on two banks in Frascati, Rome.

A statement published on the 325 website states: "In the night of Wednesday July 18 2012, two banks were attacked in Frascati. Two molotov bottles and an incendiary device were thrown at the Unicredit bank and the BNL bank. Unicredit got completely destroyed."

The statement, signed off as being from the Informal Anarchist Federation and the International Revolutionary Front, says graffiti was left at the scene - an  encircled A and the slogan "The Earth is worth more than your money."

Explains the statement: "We can see and feel directly what they are doing to the Earth, to the animals, to anti-authoritarians, and this is sufficient to give a reason to our attacks, every time with more determination and strength… forward anarchists, let’s sabotage and destroy the present!"

It says the attack was "dedicated to those who are in prison, wanted by police, sentenced and searched…. to the anarchists hit by the repressive forces of the State/Capital."

Anarchists defiant in face of repression

ANARCHISTS are reacting with defiance to the latest clamp-down on their resistance by the forces of neoliberalism.

The June 2012 of the Dark Nights zine focuses on the international repression unleashed in recent days under the title of 'Operation Ardire'.

It reports: "At 4 o’clock in the morning of June 13th, 2012, the Special Operations Group [Raggruppamento Operativo Speciale, ROS) of the Carabinieri [paramilitary police] raided about forty homes in Italy, implementing the so-called ‘Operation Boldness’ (Operazione Ardire), a crackdown against people from the anarchist movement ordered by Manuela Comodi, public prosecutor of Perugia.

"According to the regime’s media, a total of 10 arrest warrants were issued — eight within Italy, one sent to Germany and one sent to Switzerland — while 24 suspects have been put under judicial investigation.

"The Italian bourgeois Press did not hesitate to connect the arrested with the 'anarcho-insurrectionist FAI/FRI'. [Informal Anarchist Federation / International Revolutionary Front]

And Dark Nights comments: "When public debt has reached staggering proportions, the state answer is to increase taxes. When banks and speculators have brought the economy to its knees, the state answer is to give a green light to privatization.

"When work becomes a privilege and its lack brings waves of suicides, the state answer is to facilitate firings.

"More. When functionaries of the institutions soil themselves with the worst infamies, the state answer is to make their “crimes” expire.

"When the oil wells risk running dry in international conflicts, the state answer is to take part in the war.

"If the damned of the earth are forced to flee their countries and disembark on our shores, the state answer is to lock them up in concentration camps called CIE.

"Still more. When local populations don’t want harmful developments (high speed trains, incinerators, waste dumps), the state answer is to massacre demonstrators and militarily occupy the territory.

"If the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, the state answer is to protect the luxury of the former and suppress the desperation of the latter."

Anarchist flag flies on bank's HQ

ANARCHISTS in Scotland have replaced the Union Jack on the HQ of the Bank of Scotland with their own red and black banner.

The daring stunt at the very visible building  in Edinburgh city centre sends out a powerful visual statement of resistance to the capitalist system and rejection of  all the sickening jubilee flag-waving.

The massive 200-year old building on The Mound overlooks East Princes Street Gardens and is close to Edinbugh Castle and just off the Royal Mile.

UK anarchists sabotage railway

ANARCHISTS have sabotaged railway lines in a major English city as the insurrection against neoliberalism steps up across the world.

A statement was posted on Bristol Indymedia by the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) - May 22nd Group.

It reads: "On the morning of May 22nd we struck two points on the railway routes into Bristol, on the outer sides of Patchway (northern) and Parson Street (southern) stations.

"By lifting the concrete slabs running alongside the tracks and burning out the signalling cables found in the trench underneath, before carriges came on the line.

"We chose specifically chose these places so that employees of the Ministry of Defence, as well as military industry companies Raytheon/Thales/HP/QuinetiQ etc., in the business park near Filton Abbey Wood station, and the corportate hub of Bristol, near the Temple Meads station, were amongst the affected. Normal services weren't restored until the evening.

"The potential spread of such blockages in general poses a significant problem for the flow of commodites and for making sure that labour exploitation arrives on time, key concerns for transnational capitalism.

"Such actions are a time-honoured method of disturbing the 'social peace' myth: from similar sabotages in France; cash courier vehicles getting destroyed in Crete; the night-time smashing of train station ticket machines in Austrailia; resistance to highway developments eating even further into wild landscapes (such as Khimki forest in Russia) whilst displacing animals and people who are still refusing to assimilate into industrial civilisation (such as Bolivia's TIPNIS project in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world); to the iconic seizure and arson of the city bus in London last August.

"Not to mention our comrades of FAI/Fires on the Horizon, in Athens, and FAI/Individuals Conspiring for the Destruction of the Existent, in Curicó, defiant with their barricades...

"Everywhere the bosses want us scurrying around their metropolis, like consignments of human flesh in alientating containers on pre-determinated routes, in a frenetic hussle for survival, there is and will continue to be every reason to forcefully intervene in the smooth flow of the daily grind.

"In the United Kingdom of clockwork control and domestication, we're some of the 'unpatriotic ones' who find the 2012 Olympics, with the ensuing spectacle of wealth (when so many here struggle to feed themselves and their families), harmful developments and escalating police state, frankly offensive.

"But no union or movement calls our shots, and we have no inhibition to use guerrilla activity to hurt the national image and paralyze the economy however we can. Because simply, we don't want rich tourists - we want civil war."

Meanwhile in Italy a police chief has warned that anarchists now represent the biggest threat to the neoliberal state.

Agi.it reports that police chief Antonio Manganelli said: "Revolutionary anarchism is now the real terror threat to our country, not the Red Brigades or the international terrorism that concerns us like other countries.

"Revolutionary anarchists have created an international network starting from the Greek cells. It is a phenomenon to be reckoned with. They themselves in their own documents have stated that they have made the leap in quality to be able to carry out assassinations."

Happy kids in anti-police riot

MONTREAL anarchists are euphoric after an anti-police protest achieved spectacular impact.

Said a statement on Anarchist News Dot Org: "We flipped over a policecar on rue Sainte-Catherine. Prole stroll.

"Everyone was like WHOO! and happy kids were dancing on the chassis, happy cuz they were right to be happy. Banks got their windows broken. Fancy stores too.

"A lot of garbage got pulled into the streets, and pylons, and heavy signs. You know, the usual. But it's the moments when the pigs backed off cuz they were scared! It's the moments when you get away with political crimes in totalitarian Canada!

"It's the moments when the pig cruiser is flipped over and you're highfiving strangers becuz you're happy and they're happy and this is a moment to cherish. Prole stroll!

"LE 15 MARS, LA VENGEANCE. We could've done better, but we did what we did, and this was the one day when the pacifists weren't out in force and the people who get harassed by the police on a daily basis were letting loose and we got to share some knowing looks with some of the kids we haven't seen since this time last year. This was our day, our night. Prole stroll!

"Some comrades are in jail. Many people, perhaps not yet aware of the fact that we live in a surveillance society, did things that perhaps they should not have done with their faces unconcealed.

"What happens next is hard to say. Maybe the pacifists who got beaten with police batons when they sat in front of cops will have learned their lesson by now! And maybe anarchists can figure out a way to be half as badass as some of the people who were on the streets tonight.

"The city is begging the province for more help with the security crisis: student demos everyday with more to come, and now this, the biggest March 15 in years, prole stroll like we ain't seen outside of a hockey riot, what is sure to be a big embarassment to North America's crowd control experts.

"THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO DO. Onward to March 22, onward to May Day, onward to the continental general strike and the infinite strike! Until neither the SPVM nor any other police agency nor any other institution of domination exist, our work isn't done.

"And to the kids who looted Future Shop and got some PS3s, MAD RESPECT. We GET what we can TAKE."

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Call-out for a new European network

A CALL-OUT has been made to European comrades by rebels planning a new international network.

The Occupied London group, which produces the much-read From The Greek Streets blog, has issued the following statement and asked for it to be widely reposted and translated.

The world around us is changing beyond recognition. In the past few years, months, weeks and days, things we were once used to – from the quality of life we could expect, our interaction with others, our politics, just about everything – seem to vanish into thin air.

This crisis has been a systemic one, to be sure, but the collapse of the certainties of capitalism has left so many of our own certainties naked. At a time when action is more urgent than ever, at a historical turning point, change has been so sweeping that it paralysed many. Before, we were trying to learn how to create cracks and open new paths in the solid certainties of the neo-liberal frenzy. Now, cracks wide open, we want to pull out its insides and disentangle ourselves through a generalised and indefinite social strike (1).

We are members of Occupied London, an anarchist project that started in London, UK in 2007, printing journals and writing texts on urban realities from an anarchist perspective. When the revolt of 2008 kicked off in Greece, some of us felt the need to return there to report on and translate into English what was happening in the country’s cities from the ground.

Nearly 1,000 blog-posts and one book later, we are absolutely determined to keep on writing about what is happening on the streets and in people’s everyday lives as capital strikes its final blows in our daily lives preparing for its departure, leaving only the violence of the state behind to defend their pipelines of wealth.

We now see a need to grow, to become even more relevant, to move beyond the usual political subdivisions and beyond reacting to capital and state violence and grasp seriously this moment of rupture. Our contribution in this direction is this call to effectively share analysis and coordinate action across Europe.

Information coming from the mainstream media intends to divide us: it seeks to put the blame for the crisis first on the laziness of one People, then on the greed of another. In the mainstream media, people are seen as isolated victims or as a mass of protesters, but never as thinking, desiring and acting people who can take control of their own futures in common. This is a new battlefield where our conditions of living, producing and reproducing will be set for generations to come.

With this call-out we are seeking new comrades and friends. Whether you are an individual or group, get in touch. This is a project that aims to be as wide as possible; there is space for everyone feeling close to our wider social antagonist movement, but no space at all for sectarianism of any sort. The way we envisage this network, each local information point will operate in a completely autonomous way, while a main node of information will gather all local material at one place, tagged in a way that makes the content as practically useful as possible.

Dissemination of information and analysis across Europe and beyond, and coordination of action are our main aims.

This is very much a work at progress. So contact us at editorial@occupiedlondon.org and we will be more than happy to discuss any details. Members of our collective are travelling to various places in Europe in the next few months to discuss the idea as far and wide as we can. If you want to host an event and get to discuss the project in person, get in touch.

(1. By generalised social strike we mean the systematic -but wildcat- pause of our normal activities (working, consuming, using networks etc.) and
extracting it from the sphere of capital, combined with marching and occupation of public spaces, taking place to as many countries as possible
simultaneously. So we overthrow the normal and sovereign flows of capital, products and information.)

With love,
The Occupied London collective

Police forged 'anarchist' papers

RUSSIAN anti-fascists and anarchists from Nizhny Novgorod are calling for global solidarity in their battle against a police prosecution based on crudely forged papers.

Crucial pieces of so-called evidence were planted during police searches, they say, during which a great number of procedural violations were committed - including the fact that most of the accused were altogether absent when their apartments were searched.

"Thus, during a police search of the apartment of one of the accused, who was not home at the time, the official witnesses (who are required to be present under Russian law) sat outside the closed door of the apartment while the police, who had entered through a window, did as they pleased in the empty apartment.

"The alleged IDs contain a crude spelling error (it would be odd if leftist activists had spelled the word “anarchy” wrong).

"The charter of this 'organization', which was likewise planted by police during these searches, stipulates a hierarchical structure, unconditional submission to the leader, and even punishment for disobedient members.

"These 'rules' are, of course, incompatible with leftist views and with the ideals of liberty and equality that our comrades espouse.

"The authorities have ignored all the outrageous violations of human rights committed by the political police, and they refuse to acknowledge the clear fabrications committed in this criminal investigation.

"Our only hope is the pressure of public opinion, international attention to the case, and widespread media coverage. On March 16–18, 2012, we call for days of coordinated actions in solidarity with the Nizhny Novgorod anti-fascists."

The dissidents are also asking for money to pay lawyers - at least $3,000. Details of how to donate can be found at http://avtonom.org/node/17032.

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Anarchists target fat cat banker

ANARCHISTS are set to invade the country estate of British banker Stephen Hester.

Class War founder Ian Bone is calling on his blog for an 'Occupy Hester' action on Sunday April 29, the date of an official open day for the forelock-tugging public to admire the arrogant fat cat's wealth.

The proposal has already been reported by The Guardian and bankers' website Square Mile.

Bone says: "Stephen Hester’s 350 acre country mansion is BROUGHTON GRANGE at Broughton near Banbury in Oxfordshire.

"The next OPEN DAY there  is on APRIL 29th  – when for a mere £6 you can marvel at Stephen’s good luck and shake hands with one of his eight gardners…….no doubt the scullery maid will also be present.

"Soooooo……CLASS WAR are urging as many people as possible to come on the open day and chuck a few more quid into Hester’s maw. Fun and games assured. BE THERE – BEST FUN SINCE HENLEY.  Our French comrades will be visiting his ski lodge at Verbier on the same day. "

51-year -old Hester is chief executive of RBS, bailed out by the British taxpayers for £45 billion, and was this week forced to waive a £1m bonus after public outrage at fat cat greed.

Hester also enjoys the upper class hobby of murdering wildlife and his wife is a master of fox hounds in Warwickshire.

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Moscow anarchists take to streets

THE ROLE of Russian anarchists in the recent anti-Putin protests in Moscow has been outlined in an article on libcom.org

Despite being picked out for attention by Putin's police, they managed to form a vocal and effective block on December 24 as an estimated crowd of 120,000 protested against corruption and vote-rigging.

Almost all the speakers at a makeshift assembly were unanimous that the official 'opposition',  who consider themselves the ideologues of the protest movement, just want to get into power and do not intend to defend the interests of ordinary people.

It was unlikely that any number of peaceful meetings would lead to radical changes. People could only defend their rights by fighting against the state and capital, and building around libertarian ideas, insisted the anarchists.

The anarchists barracked 'opposition' oligarch Prokhorov when he took to the main podium, calling for  "the power of millions, not the millionaires".

After 16 hours, when some protesters began to disperse,  a column of anarchists and anti-fascists joined together with a group of feminists, LGBT activists and individual representatives of the organized left-wing organizations and moved closer to the stage.

The anarchists chanted slogans such as "Freedom, equality, anarcho-communism," "Higher, higher, black flag, the state is the chief enemy," "Fascism shall not pass!", "Our country - all of humanity!", "All politics - crooks and thieves," "Our candidate - self-government", "Down with fascism and capitalism" and "The path to freedom is revolution!".

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'Corrupt civilization must be destroyed'

 
A CALL for the complete destruction of our valueless and corrupt capitalist civilization has been issued by anarchist blogger Paul Cudenec.

Entitled 'We Anarchangels of Creative Destruction', his article draws on a number of unusual sources, such as the French traditionalist philosopher Rene Guenon.

Cudenec writes: "How many Anarchangels does it take to bring down a civilisation?

 

"More than we are now, that is for sure. But we will swell in size and strength as others flow into our stream and turn it into a mighty river.

 

"Don’t forget that it rains all the time. Life-moisture expended and drawn up into the ether is formed again and joins us here on Earth.

 

"Regeneration means new generations and these are born to play their part in the ending of an age.

 

"The death-power is strong and could not be defeated by the energy of risings past.

 

"But each time we come back stronger and in greater numbers. Each time we know less fear and we understand more fully just how far we have to go.

 

"This will happen again and again until we have won.

 

"Sin miedo. Nothing can stop us."

 

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Russian anarchists torch police car and call for uprising

RUSSIAN anarchists have torched a police car and called for a radical uprising against the regime.

Says a statement from the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Russian Cell, FAI/IRF, posted on the 325 website on Friday "After December the 4th (election day in Russia), when the Russian state deployed numerous police and military forces in Moscow and common people took to the streets to shout 'Enough is enough' in the face of cops and corrupt bureaucrats in all major Russian cities, anarchists were engaged in assembly work, organizing and propaganda.

"Last week saw several clashes of common people with police (anarchists took part in those fights): 1 & 2

"This 'popular dissent' is expressed not only in Moscow, but in St. Petersburgh, Nizhnii Novgorod, Tyumen and other big cities.

"System opposition called for a mass rally on December the 10th. Them and the authoritarian lefties try to come on top in this situation and direct the malcontent towards liberal reformism and pacifist practices.

"Tomorrow will be the day we’ve been fighting hard to see coming. Tomorrow is the day that the Russian regime anticipates with fear.

"Being not the least among those who helped build-up the situation, we continue to push for a more radical character of popular uprising.

"On 09/12/2011 we torched a police car. Solidarity with all active insurgents, solidarity to all revolutionary anarchists in prisons!

"Push for anarchist revolution!"

Occupy Red Square!

Live streaming of protest in Russia can be seen at http://www.ridus.ru/

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