Saturday, May 19, 2007



ANARCHISM GROWS IN EASTERN EUROPE:

A SMORGASBORD OF EVENTS:

Since the demise of Marxist tyranny in what used to be the "eastern bloc" the anarchist movement has continued to grow as the only real alternative to kleptocratic capitalism in that part of the world. Here are a few upcoming events that have come to Molly's attention in the past couple of weeks:

A: Romanian anarchists around the Love Kills zine plan to hold an anarcha-feminist festival this July & 6th in Timisoara in western Romania. There will be workshops, concerts, exhibitions and video productions at this festival which aims to address the double oppression that women suffer in present society. Read more at http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos03731.html . Contact these people at 3lovekills3@gmail.com

B: Over in Ukraine anarchists are planning a No-Borders camp from August 11th to 20th in the Transcarpathia region of Ukraine. This area is the intersection of 5 different countries; Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania, and it has become a major pathway for people attempting to escape from the poverty and tyranny of parts of the ex-USSR and the global south into the EU. The border controls in this area have been dramatically increased, and would be immigrants are treated with extreme harshness.

The Ukrainian anarchists are demanding the end of this Fortress Europe controls and free passage of people seeking a better life. This camp will be like previous No-Border camps held in such places as the border of Poland and Germany from 1998-2000, the eastern border of Poland from 2000-2003, Slovenia in 2001, Romania in 2003, on the Bulgarian/Greek border in 2003 and 2005, in Finland in 2004, in Sicily in 2000, in Tarifa, Spain in 2001 and at various times and places elsewhere in Europe, in Australia and on the US/Mexican border. The demands will be similar. This camp will be an "information only" camp as an attempt to reach people resident in Transcarpathia and to exchange information between people active in migration issues. Any actions will be elsewhere than in Transcarpathia as local people would be influenced in the wrong way by anything disruptive in their area. There will also be an international Food Not Bombs gathering at this camp. FnB activities have blossomed in Eastern Europe recently. There are over 50 groups active in Russia alone.

Contacts for this camp are at noborder@riseup.net . You can read more about it at http://www.ainfos.ca/ainfos03485.html .

C: Meanwhile out in Siberia the Russian government is planning to build a new uranium enrichment plant in the city of Angarsk, 60 kms from Irkutsk and 120 kms from Lake Baikal. Activists from the Russian anarchist federation Autonomous Action and the Lake Baikal Movement plan to hold an ecological protest camp beginning July 15th. You can keep up to date on the plans via the English language section of the Autonomous Action website. further information from ogopogos@gmail.com .

D: Finally, the Praxis Research and Education Centre of the Victor Serge Library in Moscow plans to hold two educational events in Russia this summer. The first will be in Moscow on July 9th and 10th at the Memorial Society on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The general topic will be "1917-2007:Idea of the Revolution and Experience of History". The conference languages will be English, french and Russian. The conference will be followed by a meeting at the Victor Serge Library on July 11th, celebrating its 11th anniversary.

The second meeting will be held on July 16th in celebration of the new branch of the Victor Serge Library in Sebastopol in Crimea. this will be followed by an ecological camp on July 17th to 18th in Peschanoe on the Black Sea coast about 40 kms from Sebastopol. The theme will be 'Global socio-Ecological Crisis and Ways for its Overcoming'.
You can get more information by visiting the Praxis website above (it has English and French sections) or by writing in either Russian, English or French to praxis2001@mail.ru .
For those interested in seeing more of what is happening with anarchism in the ex-Soviet empire here's a grab bag of links from Molly's Links section. All have either English and/or French content:
A Contra - Czech Republic
Molly would, of course, be very happy if any of her readers could suggest other eastern European links that have material in either English or French.
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