INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-EASTERN EUROPE:

ABOLISHING THE BORDERS FROM BELOW #34:

According to the English language section of the Polish anarchist news site Centrum Informacji Anarchistcznej the latest issue of Abolishing the Borders from Below (no 34) is now available for distribution. The ABfB has a website, but it is not up to date. Their magazine, however, continues its regular and excellent reporting from Eastern Europe.

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Abolishing the Borders from Below #34 is out :

Abolishing the Borders from Below #34, an anarchist journal from Eastern Europe, is out. The March'2009 edition of this excitingly irregular anarchist magazine has 64 pages, following the slogan on the cover “The turning point is here – lets turn crises into system collapse!” and includes following materials:
-“These shards are our tears” – we wont forget you Stas and Nastya;

-Students on the streets of Chisinau after 29 years old student was shot dead by Moldavian police;

-Czechoslovak anarchist Federation in 2008 report;

-“Towards an education for freedom” text from Russia;

-“20 years after the round table” – a brief look at capitalism in Poland;

-“Instead of proletarian struggles” – text by Barricade Collective;

-“What causes the economic crisis” – crisis from polish anarchist perspective;

-Renaissance of squatting movement in Czechia-“Dept-strike as one of possible answers to he crisis” – text from Hungary;

-Interview with Black Flag Rec. on anarchist movement in city of Lodz;

-Minsk Zine-Fest from a slightly other point of view;

-Workers Initiative under attack from employers and state - Poland;

-Workers in Ukraine seize their plant – various reports and statements;

-Platform minimum of Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation;

-Reports from solidarity actions with “Greek-Revolt” around Eastern Europe;

-Rozbrat – a free space in an unfree world – report on situation in Poznan;

-Report from protests against NATO-summit in Krakow (Poland);

-“Russian prisons are amongst the most rebellious in the world” - on prison resistance in Russia;

-“All governments are the same scum!” – report from March 8 demo in Warsaw;

-Unknown moments of East European anarchist history – anarchist groups in Lodz (Poland) 1905-1939;

-“The case of the Janov neighbourhood” – antifascist report from Czechia;

-Antifascist action Budapest – Day of Honour report;

-“No repression for standing up to fascism” – polish state protects fascists and anti-semites;

-Interview with Russian anti-racists;-... and many more information, announcements and contacts;
ABB is available in many anarchist bookstores and distributions around the globe.
You can order as well directly by editorial collective under:

wielkowitsch@hotmail.com
Contact ABB-collective under:

abolishingbb@riseup.net

POLAND:

ACTIONS AGAINST THE EUROPEAN BORDER POLICE:

The following item is from the A-Infos website, though it was republished there from the Frontex Info site. It describes some recent actions of eastern European anarchists against the border regime that the EU has set up.

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Poland, Shut Down EU Migrant Hunters! - Actions against Frontex

Frontex is the EU agency which deals with hunting down migrants, intercepting boat people, organizing charter deportations, training and coordinating armed border defense teams and border guards, spying on migrants and other heinous acts. With the slogans "No Borders, No Nations, Stop Deportations" and "Shut Down Frontex", we went to its headquarters.

---- On June 5-6, activists from many different countries came to Warsaw to protest against the deadly policies of Frontex, the EU agency which conducts migrant hunting operations, trains border guards and special units to hunt down people crossing so-called "national borders" and which helps to coordinate and implement EU immigration policy. Frontex has its headquarters in Warsaw.

On June 5, the second of two transnational conferences took place. (A more complete account of the conference should appear later.) The conference was opened by Laure Akai with presentations by Amadou Mbow, a human rights activist from Mauretania, Devi Sachetti from Italy, who deals with issues of migrant rights, including the issue of precarity and migrant labour, Vincent de Jong from Holland, who is active in resistance against detention and deportation in Holland, Georgios Maniatis from Greece and Hagen Kopp from Germany. The speakers presented information about the Frontex operations near the coast of Africa and their consequences, the operations in Libya and the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas as well as an overview of Frontex operations, the ideology behind this and our arguments against this regime. It was pointed out during the presentations and later discussions how destructive these policies are and how the migrants can be victimized twice - for example, by the practices of some businesses which undermine their traditional livelihoods at home and then by the policies of the countries these businesses tend to come from, which seek to exclude people.

On June 6, a demonstration was held in front of Frontex headquarters. People from many countries were present, people from various social movements, some refugees living in Poland as well. The protestors demand that Frontex be shut down and that freedom of movement should be given to all, that there be an end to discrimination of all sorts against immigrants. The sleazy head of Frontex, Ilkka Laitinen, came out to try to assure the press that he's a nice, decent guy who's just doing his job, which most people agree with. He invited some people in to speak with him but, just like any two-faced, teflon politician, he tried to deflect all criticism by using Eichmann's defense and pretended to not know anything about migrants suffering because of Frontex's work. He asked people to please inform people should they hear of any problems. As if the fact that people came thousands of miles to protest was no indication that something was going wrong.

The protesters made some speeches and had many slogans against borders in general, against deportation, against Frontex, etc. Afterwards, a demonstration was held. People went to the Presidential Palace to protest Poland's immigration policies, in particular it's agreement with the Vietnamese government to deport 5000 Vietnamese people. The Polish border police, along with Vietnamese security forces, carried out a number of raids recently in which Vietnamese people were beaten, detained and deported. This government agreement has driven many of Poland's Vietnamese (70,000 people in Warsaw) underground.

Afterwards activists met and agreed to continue working on this issue, to make the issue more known and to provide a deeper analysis of the processes, including appeals to working class people not to be fooled by the divisive ideology of the statists and capitalists which pits working people against each other.

The anti-Frontex activities were ended by a concert on June 7th.

Photos:

http://cia.bzzz.net/warszawa_demonstracja_przeciwko_frontexowi#comment-38784

http://www.poland.indymedia.org/pl/2008/06/36790.shtml

Video:

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=1vD16bjhCf4

Audio links (in English):

1. Bernd Kasparek

http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/16895

2. Tobias Pflüger

http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/16894

3. Amadou Mbow

http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/16893

More info on Frontex:

www.noborder.org

www.frontex.info.pl

http://frontexwatch.wordpress.com/

http://www.frontex.info.pl

ANARCHIST MAGAZINES:

ABOLISHING THE BORDERS FROM BELOW #31(FEBRUARY 2008) IS OUT:

Abolishing the Borders From Below is an irregular anarchist journal published by a network of anarchists from various countries in eastern Europe. Here's a description of the contents of this latest issue....

“Will we be asked – or will we Act?”

ABOLISHING THE BORDERS FROM BELOW #31 (February 2008) is out!
International anarchists collective from Berlin brought in last days of February 2008 next issue of its excitingly irregular magazine “Abolishing the Borders from Below - an anarchist journal from Eastern Europe”.

The main chapters in this issue are: MILITARISATION in Eastern Europe and resistance against it; FACING REPRESSIONS – various reports, articles and interviews on state repressions against activists, incl. letters from the prisoners; and LABOUR STRUGGLES with reports on strikes and daily resistance of working people and involvement of anarchists in these actions.

Here is more detailed overview of the content of 64 pages of AbolishingBB#31:

*“Not so quite on the Eastern Front: FRONTEX Assures Xenophobic Europe that its Doing its Job”;

*Interview with two Russian comrades about their detention in connection with “Nevskiy express” case;

*“Your hope strengthens my hope, which sometimes grows very dim in my prison cell” – letter from prisoner;

*“This is what the Law looks like, the Law created by the immaculate dictators” – letter from prisoner;

*The case of Adam Pazuryna – anarchist from Warsaw;

*“They didn’t ask us in 68’ and they are not asking us again now…” resistance against US-military basis in Czech Rep.;

*“It’s said it’s for peace…but imagine Russia is building its radar in Mexico or Canada…how would the USA react?” – interview about the US-Army-radar-Base and social response to this project in Czech Rep.;

*Update on campaign against the Us-Military Base in Poland;

*Anti-NATO week in Bucharest in Romania – guide for activists planning to join the resistance on the spot;

*Actions against Hypermarket AUCHAN in Poland,

“46 days and 1050 meters deep on strike under increasing attack of a common front made by mine-management, the government, the media and the leaders of unions which were not striking” – STORY of BUDRYK miners strike in Poland;

“We will not let the government crush the miners strike, and we will not tolerate lies in the media, we will not let them appease rightful demands” – anarchist commentary to the strike in Budryk;

JAN KUCERA – another victim of neo-nazis…;

Reports on anti-fascist struggles in Czech, Poland and Russia;Report from Slovakia on social conflicts, workers resistance, activities of Priama Akcia;

“New Government new problems” – first analysis of the politics of new polish Government;

*Interview with activists from Anarchist Federation from Poznan about situation of ROZBRAT – oldest anarchist center in Poland finding itself in danger of eviction;

*“On the proposed legislative clampdown in Estonia – what`s all the fuss about?”;

*“Reform – growth for the rich, less for the poor. Capitalism against people – people against capitalism” – leaflet of Czech anarchists against anti-social reforms;

*Animal protection actions in Ukraine;

*“Black-red company in Warsaw Uprising (1944) against Nazi occupation” – historical material from chapter “unknown moments of Eastern European anarchist/syndicalist history;

*Documentary on successively developing social resistance in Slovenia;Fourth Anarchist Bookfair in Zagreb;

*“Equality now!” – a gender festival in Moscow 8th-10th of March 2008;and more…;

If you would like to distribute this anarchist journal in your region, please contact the distribution section of AbolishingBB collective under: wielkowitsch@hotmail.com

More info about the collective and journal itself, incl. content of the past issues (2001-2007), you can find under: www.abb.hardcore.lt

CENTRAL EUROPE:

CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL MOBILIZATION AGAINST US MILITARY BASES IN CENTRAL EUROPE: NO TO ANTI-MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM:

The Polish Campaign Against Militarism, Poles for a Referendum, the Polish Anarchist Federation and other groups are calling for a large-scale mobilization against the installation of missiles and the building of a US base in Poland as part of the proposed anti-missile defense system that the present rulers of the American Empire are plotting. The plan is to have two bases for this system in Europe, a radar base in the Czech Republic , which has already drawn its share of controversy and protest, and a missile base for missiles armed with nuclear warheads in Poland. The US government tries to claim that these bases are for "protection against rogue states in the Middle East", though the target is obvious for anyone with common sense. Russian offers to facilitate the placement of such facilities in Armenia, much closer to their "presumed" threat, have been refused by the US government. The placement of the bases in Poland and the Czech Republic puts the people of these nations at the "front line" of an American attempt to intimidate Russia, in a time when the idea of Russia sending nuclear missiles against Central and Western Europe can make no sense outside of either the most psychotic or the most primitive of US neocons.

The Centrum Informacji Anarchistycznej of Poland has an article on this whole matter, and the protests planned against it for early next year. This will begin with protests in Brussels on March 22nd, 2008, continue with further protests under the slogan of 'Stop the Shield !' in Poland on March 29- 30 and conclude with protests at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania on April 2- 4, 2008. See the above mentioned article for background and more details.

EASTERN EUROPE:

ISSUE NUMBER 30 (OCTOBER, 2007) OF THE ANARCHIST JOURNAL 'ABOLISHING THE BORDERS FROM BELOW' NOW AVAILABLE:

Abolishing the Borders From Below is a cooperative project of numerous eastern European anarchists, bringing news of the libertarian movement in that part of the world. The latest edition has reports from Poland, Russia, Serbian, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova,Ukraine, Czech Republic, Turkey and Belarus. Most of the longer articles are organized under four headings: Mental Health, No Borders, Don't Vote-Organize and Anti-Militarism, but there is news from across the region. For a complete list of the articles and reports see HERE.

Now in its sixth year of publication Abolishing Borders is an irregular publication in chronic need of funds. To subscribe, read more or donate see their website at http://www.abb.hardcore.lt/

MORE ON EASTERN EUROPEAN ANARCHISM:

A SUPPLEMENTAL:

More recent information has passed before Molly's ever aware feline eyes about events amongst the anarchists in eastern Europe. One item is that an anti-g8 mobilization took place in Brno, Czech Republic, on May 13th. This led to a call for people from both the Czech Republic and Slovakia to come to the Relich camp on June 1st, to support an antifascist demonstration in Shwerin on June 2nd and to demonstrate in Prague on June 5th on the occasion of the visit of the Emperor, Bush II, to that city. More info in Czech can be seen at the website of the Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation.

Also the Irish Workers' Solidarity Movement attended the recent anarchist bookfair in Poznan, Poland. A report on their visit can be viewed at http://www.anarchkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5634 . Lots of interesting stuff there, but what stands out to Molly is the report of a new anarcho-syndicalist group set up in Poland in opposition to the Workers' Initiative grouping. This seems to be an IWA creation in response to the presumed "reformism" of Workers' Initiative. Seems to Molly like a fundamentally bad idea.

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:

Abolishing the Borders From Below - Lithuania

Alternative Network for Eastern Europe - Poland

A Contra - Czech Republic

Armenian Libertarian Socialist Movement - Armenia

Avtonom:Autonomous Action - Russia

Centrum Informacji Anarchistcznej - Poland

Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation - Czech Republic

Infoshop Bratislava - Slovakia

Praska Anarchist Group - Poland

Praxis Research and Education Center - Russia

Revolutionary Manual - Belarus

Underground Lithuania - Lithuania

Workers' Initiative - Poland

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.