In two years of one of the biggest social crisis, anarchists and leftists have failed to have any strategy on how to deal with it. Humble attempts to develop those strategies quite often were ignored by majority of activists or people close to political circles. Many, though complaining about social isolation, enjoyed their prolonged vacation from political activism. In Germany, so-called “plena” activism, where people spend most of their out of work time sitting in meetings, transformed in online meeting activism. People would spend hours and hours per day talking about what should be done and quite frequently fail to act: because of high load of online meetings, there is no time left to actually act.
Author: Nikita Ivansky
How “antifa” from Belarus evicted and captured anarchist squat “Sirena” in Warsaw
A couple of days ago, former antifascist prisoner from Belarus Dmitriy Zvanko with a mob attacked anarchist squat Sirena in the center of Warsaw. The gang used bottles, peper spray, bricks and other things to throw out residents of the occupied building.
Is Russia becoming a communist country?
In recent elections to Duma (Russian parliament) communist party (CPRF) gained 5% and is resting now at 18.93%. It is still far away from Putin’s United Russia, but for a lot of enthusiasts, this can sound like good news. Some might think that ideas of communism are gaining once again and sooner or later Russia will be liberated from capitalism. The story is way more complicated. And shortly – no, Russia is not becoming more communist from electing members of the Communist Party.
Israel? Let’s better not talk about it.
Although for most of the German anarchists the anti-germans are not something to talk about, the agenda that was presented by the pro-Israelian movement took roots in anarchist and leftist circles deep. It goes as far as attempts to pass agreements within the anarchist syndicate FAU to put an equal sign between antizionism and antisemitism. And although the push within FAU so far has failed, the anarchist movement is still getting more and more pressure from the pro-Israelian and clearly statist left to distance itself from work with the Palestinian Diaspora. With that happening inside the country, the complicated issue with the topic of Israel is also pouring outside of it. There were troubles within the international syndicalist groups because of member’s support of the BDS movement which is seen by many german leftists as antisemitic.
How Lukashenko is using refugees to put pressure on EU?
You might have heard already about “refugee crisis” happening in Lithuania: in last months several thousands of people through forests and swamps crossed belarusian lithuanian border to request asylum in one of the European countries. In fact, the goal of most of the refugees from the Middle East is to move further into the EU as Lithuania with it’s new conservative government is not a friendly place to be for an immigrant (even though a lot of Lithuanians after the country joined the European Union migrated to western countries for economic reasons).
For the world without fascism!
This is a transcript of speech given on 8 May rally in Dresden, Germany.
Anarchists are not always welcome in left-wing social centers, and this is not news to us
Political and social movements need spaces. In liberal countries there are many open spaces where activists can hold debates, workshops, and concerts. Germany is no exception. In authoritarian countries the situation is more complicated. But sometimes it is only one step from an authoritarian regime from the former Soviet Union to German leftists.
In 2018, libertarian days took place in Dresden, a week of various presentations, workshops, and actions on the topic of anarchism and libertarian communism. Among other things, I had the idea of bringing comrades who could talk a bit about the situation in Israel. Despite the strong antigerman movement, local leftists and anarchists know relatively little about the situation in Israel, and most of the knowledge is direct propaganda from the right-wing government. This is partly the basis of the antigerman’s success in some regions: they simply repeat the already existing propaganda of Netanyahu and Co.
How COVID vaccine is used by Putin to gain political power in Germany
The love story between german goverment and authoritarian Putins regime in Russia is a long one. And while the biggest baby of this love is North Stream oil pipe, the struggle against COVID is becoming another big project. Recently the news came that Germany is up to buy 30m Sputnik jabs from Russia. Experience of neighbours from Croatia who got somehow shitty Sputnik is not really the thing germans would like to accept.
What the fuck is happening in Ukraine with Belarusian anarchists?
Today Ukrainian secret police tried to deport several Belarusian anarchists who left Belarus several years go in fear of political prosecution. Luckily information traveled fast and while the flat was still raided people started gathering in front of the houses of activists. After some struggle with local police, lawyers managed to get to the activists and stop the whole process. Deportation papers were not sanctioned by any court rather directly signed by SBU (Security Service of Ukraine). After the information storm SBU gave up on deporting the activists to Belarus, however it seems like they will have to leave the country in the next 24 hours.
Анархистам не всегда рады в левых социальных центрах и для нас это не новость
Политическим и социальным движениям нужны пространства. В либеральных странах создано довольно много открытый площадок, на которых активисты могут проводить дебаты, воркшопы и концерты. Германия в этом вопросе не исключение. В авторитарных странах ситуация сложнее. Но иногда от авторитарного режима из бывшего совка всего один шаг до немецких леваков.