INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-GREECE:

ATHENS INDYMEDIA UNDER THREAT:

Following the recent riots in Greece various political from fascist to communist, with many in between, have conceived the idea that shutting down the Indymedia centres in Greece would be a laudable goal. The following, from the English section of Athens Indymedia is the defiant response.

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The distribution of ideas ... Can't be strangled! Can't be repressed! Can't be repressed!:
During the revolt in December, pressure and attacks against the 2 existing Indymedia sites (Athens and Patras) reached a peak.

With ridiculous questions during the Greek Parliament sessions from members of parliament belonging to a fascist political party, slanderous rumours and sneaky publications even from the Greek Communists Party official newspaper(Molly hardly finds this surprising. Leninism was reactionary from its birth, and it has become even more so in the bizarre "life after death" in which it exists today), as well as other daily newspapers, the State has a cultivated its plans of shutting down Indymedia , a website of direct information used by socio-political movements and internet meeting point for thousands of people sharing their thoughts and actions, creating and organising a site of free expression and resistance against Capitalism and State agendas epitomized in the motto “profits above people”.

Let them all know that Indymedia is outside their sphere of authority and control, it belongs to those voices suppressed and gagged by their system, it's far away from their logic and morality. It is ours and will stay alive for as long as we need it to change this world.

Don't you dare attack free speech and its Indy-media!

Don't even think about it!

[ Indymedia's archive for functioning and dynamics of Indymedia ]

AMERICAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

RADICAL RICHMOND:

It is a continued pleasant surprise for Molly to see evidence of anarchism popping up in what are, to me, the most unlikely of places. Richmond, Virginia for instance, which apparently has quite an active community. Here is the announcement of their new news website, Radical Richmond, which replaces the old Richmond Indymedia, closed for reasons similar to those that have led (twice) to the closing of Winnipeg Indymeia. A little question about their web address. Molly finally managed to reach it at http://radicalrichmond.net , not the http://www.radicalrichmond.com listed below. Hopefully this will be clarified soon.

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New Radical Richmond Independent News Site:

The Richmond Anarchist scene is proud to announce the debut of a brand new website, hosting radical news, events, opinion, and pictures from the Richmond anarchist and radical movements.The Richmond Indymedia website effectively closed a while ago, and the void of a radical news hub has been tough on Richmond's movements. Now www.radicalrichmond.com is a blog format site designed to take over the services provided by an indymedia site.

---- Anyone with news stories, articles, opinions, events, photos or etc. relating to the Richmond radical and anarchist movements is encouraged to submit to the site. We aren't trying to censor, just trying to keep the site spam and irrelevancy free - as that was one of the main problems with the indymedia site.Once again, www.radicalrichmond.com is the new hub to find out about radical and anarchist events in Richmond and the surrounding area - including but not limited to: Critical Mass, the Really Really Free Market, Food Not Bombs, Clinic Defense, the Anarchist Black Cross, the Zine Festival, Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project, Homes Not Jails, Animal Liberation, Environmental Issues, Anarchist Soccer, Earth First, Mountain Justice, SDS, Infoshops, Movie Screenings, Queer Activism, the People United,the Labor Pool Feeding Program etc.

Submit articles to: xveganarchistrvax@gmail.com or use the submit box on www.radicalrichmond.com

INDYMEDIA REDUX:

SLANDERS ON ANARCHISM:

Regular readers of this blog will be fully aware on my opinion about the disgraceful state of Winnipeg Indymedia and the Indymedia network in general (see our archives for Dec. 20, 2007, Dec 14, 2007, Feb 24, 2007, Jan 15, 2007 and Dec. 22, 2006). In a time when anarchism has basically become the radical left, at least in North America and most of Europe, various flotsam from the shipwrecks of history inevitably try their hand at dipping into this pool in hopes of recruiting. This includes not just the old laundry list of Marxist-Leninist parties, desperate to get a recruit, any recruit, for their failed dreams of becoming a new ruling class. Even more repulsively it includes various neo-Nazi outfits and individuals who have exploited the vague leftism that too many anarchists hold to to try and turn opposition to Israeli state policies into outright anti-semitism. One of the major playpens of these reptiles is the Indymedia network, and they have been instrumental in not just corrupting the original ideal of Indymedia- an alternative news source for thoise who make news locally but are not reported by the mainstream media- but have also been the cause of the shutdown of many Indymedia sites. Unfortunately the "moderators" of most Indymedia sites, while they may claim "sympathy" for anarchism, simply don't have the ideological (and personal moral) "backbone" to reject this infiltration outright. Not surprising given the fact that far too much of what they see as "anarchism" is barely-thought-out leftist fashion (Israel Bad-Palestinian organizations Good).

Molly has been fighting this since before she started this blog in 2006, and she intends to keep on going in her own uniquely nasty way. For a statement about "leftist anti-semitism" and just how repulsive it is see 'Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All Our Movements' in the TEXTS section of our links. What is "new" in this is that some have come to take the example of what happens with Indymedia to slander anarchism, as if it was responsible for this mess rather than vague leftism. My comrade Larry Gambone of the Porkupine Blog has sent a circular about one instance of this on the Socialist Unity site. Larry has responded as has Molly. If you are an anarchist reader of this blog think about popping over and adding your own two cents worth. The basis of the accusation is that "anarchism doesn't believe in organization", that the Indymedia types are "anarchists of a sort" (yeah, "a sort" but not part of the historical tradition of anarchism), and that , therefore, anarchism is implicated in anti-semitism. As Molly has said above, the anti-semitism that such sites allow (and the very allowing of it) comes much more from mindless leftist crowd following than from anything that could be described as "anarchism". Anyways, have a look.

HUNDREDS PROTEST AGAINST ALTANTICA:

According to the organizers of the recent protest in Halifax up to 400 people took part in protests against the institution of the Atlantica free trade zone. This differs from the mass medias estimate of a tiny 200 people. Molly is agnostic about the numbers. Being as this is Halifax any numbers are important. As usual the mass media concentrated upon so-called riots initiated by the travelling "anarchist circus". As usual this followed the theatric play acting of anarchists with black masks throwing innocuous things at the police followed by massive retaliation on the part of the police, from tear gas to tasers. Estimates of those who were willing to engage in this play act converge at about 50 people. The demonstrations in Halifax included far more people who didn't want to be part of this theatre. One report from the Maritimes Indy media puts the number of marchers on June 15th as between 300 and 500. The little fracas with the cops resulted in 21 people being arrested and more than 70 charges being laid including such oldies and goodies as "unlawful assembly" (was the riot act read or not?), assaulting police, mischief and various "weapon-related offenses" (watch out for those deadly paintballs. According to protester Pierre Blais, part of the larger non-violent component of the march, much of the violence was provoked by police using stun guns on certain members of the breakaway march early in the game.

Nineteen of those arrested were released yesterday. Two others had been released earlier. The court process was delayed after some of the accused refused to identify themselves. Many of those arrested were from outside Nova Scotia and two were from the USA. The accused were remanded to court dates in early September, ordered to not associate with each other or to take part in further protests.

There's an interesting report on the protests from a participant over at the Autonomy and Solidarity site with a bit more of a report on the demo that the usual cops versus the BB comedy. There are numerous other reports on the Maritimes Indymedia site about such matters as the critical mass bike ride that was part of the actions against Atlantica and the Halifax Coalition Against Poverty demonstration. There's another interesting article over at the Maritimes Indymedia site titled 'Concept to Fall Under Its Own Weight' about why Atlantica may not be successful because, all protests aside, it is flawed in other ways.

For those interested in photos of the events like those Molly has reproduced above go to one of the following:

1) http://www.hfxnews.com/index.cfm?main=gallery&cid=574

2) http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianlarter/tags/atlantica

3) http://flickr.com/photos/admacisaac/tags/atlantica

Then there is the looming question. Are protests such as those held around the meeting of Altanitica of any great value ? The whole Black Bloc versus the police comedy has become nothing more than an endless series of sitcom reruns over the years. The whole concept of "direct action" has been lost in the shuffle, and now it means nothing more than militant posturing. There have been other casualties as well. These little set piece battles long since ditched any creativity or sense of humour and with it the ability to expand beyond a tiny set of those willing to lose street fights for no good reason. The rest of the protest indeed had both creativity and humour, but it was-and other examples will continue to be- overshadowed by the great "sensation of the day" of "anarchists losing game number 257 once more to the police team". About time to reevaluate. Actually long past time.

OAXACA JOURNALIST SHOT AND WOUNDED:

The Committee to protect Journalists has issued a press release condemning the recent attack on Miseal Sanchez Sarmiento, a reporter working for the Oaxaca dail Tiempo. Sarmiento had covered political news for the paper and had reported in Nov. 2006 on the killing of US Indymedia journalist Bradley Will. despite the fact that Tiempo is a pro-government paper Sarmiento's reporting earned him the animosity of many political figures in the Oaxaca government. Since 2000 six journalists in Mexico have been killed in direct reprisal for their political reporting, and there are 12 other killings that the CPJ is investigating. There are also 5 cases of "disappearance" of journalists in which the fate of the person is unknown. To read more about this case go to http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/americas/mexico13jun07na.html

WINNIPEG INDYMEDIA RE-OPENS:

As of Feb 22, two days ago, Winnipeg Indymedia ( http://winnipeg.indymedia.org ) is up and running again. The new incarnation is considerably improved over the old one. There is an events section that actually lists upcoming events and a considerable devotion to local news. One waits to see if the lessons learned from what happened to the old Windymedia have been learned ie if the usual anti-Semitic posts will be automatically deleted and if the Middle East and its arguments will once more overwhelm everything else. But for now things look good. Go on over to the site to have a look.

One particular item in the events section catches my eye. On the upcoming Wednesday (Feb 28th) Raul Gatica will be speaking at the Mondragon Bookstore and Coffee House (91 Albert St.) on the struggle of the people of Oaxaca against neo-liberalism in Mexico. Gatica was born in Mexico and participated in many of the human rights, indigenous rights, ecology and union struggles in that country. He is presently living in exile in Vancouver, and he comes to Winnipeg to speak about the struggle in his homeland. Molly will try to attend if work lets her, and she urges you to do likewise. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm.

Molly