Comments Off on Montreal Anarchist Solidarity with Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine and War Resisters in Russia and Belarus
Mar292022
From No Borders Media
(March 27, 2022) A small group of Montreal-area anarchists gathered downtown earlier today, and marched to the Russian consulate in solidarity with anti-fascists and the anti-war movement in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Protesters held up banners reading (in a mix of English, French and Russian): “No to war!”, “Putin: Fuck Off!”, “No more Tsars! Up the anti-fascist resistance everywhere!”, and “Solidarity with Ukrainian and Russian war resisters”. At the consulate, whose gates were already vandalized with red paint, protesters attached the banners, and read a communiqué from an anti-war action in Moscow. Before leaving, a few protesters egged the front of the consulate.
Solidarity with people resisting war and occupation, not with states, not with any fascists, and not with NATO.
Comments Off on Communique from Operation Solidarity, Kyiv
Mar272022
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Greetings, comrades!
We are the Ukrainian anti-authoritarian volunteer network, “Operation Solidarity”.
Since the first days of escalation by Russia, we have taken part in the resistance against the invasion, as have the majority of Ukrainian anarchists and anti-authoritarian left activists because we believe that this war is imperialist and usurping.
This is not a war of “de-nazification”, as the Kremlin claims. The problems of the far-right in Ukraine exist as they do in many European countries, but their scale is highly exaggerated by Russian propaganda which exploits antifascism. Life in Ukraine is incomparably more free than it is in Russia, which has only become increasingly fascistic during the course of this escalation.
Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population does not need to be “liberated”. As of now, this war is primarily being waged in regions where Russian language prevails, where local people join the territorial defense units en masse, craft Molotov cocktails, and construct barricades to repel the so-called “liberators”.
Though we remain critical towards the actions of western countries up until now, responsibility for this war lies solely with the highest seats of power in Russia, unrelenting in their ambition to expand their sphere of influence.
The war in Ukraine is a people’s war. We cannot stand idly by!
Presently, our comrades have joined the territorial defense and have formed their units there. The primary objective of Operation Solidarity is to provide them with everything they need. Such needs include: procuring high-grade body armour, ballistic helmets, tactical medical kits, and a myriad other military equipment. As of now, obtaining such vital necessities is impossible in Ukraine.
Additionally, Operation Solidarity aids refugees, distributes precious medications, and lends ever important and tangible support to local anti-authoritarian initiatives. We collaborate with the feminist cooperative ReSew, Lviv Vegan Kitchen, as well as a courier initiative distributing medication in Kyiv.
Finally, we receive and review applications from international volunteers who have opted to join the anarchist unit of the territorial defense and help facilitate their journey to Ukraine.
At this time, we call for your solidarity. Lukewarm, indecisive stances and abstract denunciations of war in general will not help us stop the dictator. Hence, we encourage you to state your concrete position in whatever form you can– we will spread your expression of solidarity here in Ukraine. We ask you to support our volunteer organization! Our duty is to provide our comrades with everything they need, and that cannot be accomplished without your help!
Greetings from Kyiv, Operation Solidarity https://t.me/solidarnistinua
Warning: This article includes screenshots of chat room conversations and visual elements of an antisemitic and racist nature.
White Lives Matter (WLM) is a neo-Nazi initiative that over the past year has spread to a number of areas in the US and Canada, as well as to New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, and elsewhere in the world. The network’s first documented action was a series of decentralized demonstrations on May 8, 2021. The low turnout for these events led some observers to conclude that the undertaking had failed, but that optimistic assessment proved premature, as the network continued to grow, with an increasing number of actions over the past year.
WLM signals an attempt to reconsolidate the neo-Nazi milieu via decentralized chat rooms on the Telegram app. This approach is in part an effort to circumvent various obstacles, ranging from censorship on the major social media platforms to doxxing and other forms of resistance from the antifascist movement, as well as eventual criminal prosecution. It also parallels the international tendency amongst neo-Nazis towards clandestine, decentralized, and “leaderless” forms of activism, a trend with roots stretching back to the 1970s. Over the years, this has given rise to the “accelerationist” current and the increased prevalence of “lone wolf” mass murderers.
The WLM project also reflects substantial frustration with the marginal status of the neo-Nazi far right and a desire to move beyond the current subculture and the ideological quarrels among different tendencies and to form an activist network able to exercise genuine influence.
Although WLM is beyond any shadow of a doubt a neo-Nazi phenomenon, the American organizers’ original intent was to soften the movement’s image, which concretely translated into a superficial reticence to openly identify with the Nazi legacy or to use the swastika or other Nazi symbols in public discussions or on the stickers that the movement’s activists put up in public. Participants were also instructed (an instruction they often ignored) not to discuss the “Jewish question” or to encourage violence on public channels. Despite this, the chat rooms are completely saturated with Hitler memes, explicit references to historical Nazism, and unbridled racism of the most extreme variety—jokes about lynching Blacks, Holocaust denial videos, discussions asserting that Jews are not human and must be exterminated, etc.
The world as imagined by members of the White Lives Matter
WLM is not a formal organization; each local group has its own Telegram channel moderated by its own admin or admins. Nonetheless, it is a well-coordinated project, many of the channels having been created in 2021 by a small original group, which then sought out activists in each region to act as admins. Propaganda promotes shared methods and goals, and dates for actions and decisions regarding “messaging” appear to be centralized.
Telegram channels can be strictly unidirectional (like an email newsletter, with the content entirely determined by the admin), or they can take the form of an open chat, somewhat in the style of a public Facebook group. In many cases, the unidirectional channels include a parallel chat room – this is the basic structure of the WLM regional groups. Once these virtual spaces were established, the participants were encouraged to print WLM posters and stickers (typically, different variations on the central racist theme of the “great replacement” and the oppression of whites at the hands of other groups), to coordinate outreach and propaganda campaigns, and to take photos of their actions and post them on Telegram to encourage other people to also get involved.
Some WLM outings have received coverage in the Canadian media (e.g., posters in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario and New Battleford, Saskatchewan; in Toronto, where they have joined demonstrations against public health measures; see also the recent report on WLM activities in Montreal in Pivot), but mostly they have gone unnoticed. In some cases, local groups have met in person to coordinate more ambitious actions, e.g., banner drops in public areas.
This structure and approach is not unique to WLM; it is also shared by various other groups on the far right at the present time. Telegram provides a platform that allows individuals to get involved according to their own comfort level, and to become integrated into a community of sorts, with no need to meet or talk to anyone in person, all the while being encouraged to develop activities suited to their own capabilities.
As of this writing, many WLM channels are to all intents and purposes dormant, with less than a dozen members. Meanwhile, some groups in the US have taken their activities off the internet and into the streets in the form of banner drops, organized outings, leafletting, etc. In the areas where it is most active, WLM has been entwined with other neo-Nazi groups, such as the Folkish Resistance Movement (whose propaganda has been distributed in Saskatchewan and Alberta),[1] the Canada First group in Ontario, which received a certain amount of visibility at the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, and the attempt to set up a group called “Nationalist 13” (“13” symbolizing “anti-communist”) in southern Ontario.
Examining the WLM’s internal chat logs, obtained from comrades with Cornvallis Antifa, it appears that in Canada the user known as “McLeafin” was brought on board by the US organizers in April 2021. He then set up a number of channels for different provinces and proceeded to seek out recruits to act as admins.
Early on the evening of Tuesday March 15, anarchists and anti-authoritarians converged in the historic working-class neighbourhood of St-Henri, Montreal, for the 26th annual International Day Against Police Brutality. This year, in addition to venting their hatred of the SPVM (the Montreal police), a central theme of the march was the colonial repression faced by Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters at the hands of the RCMP.
The evening of March 15th, was the 26th annual protest against police brutality. 26 years of marching, 26 years of systematic repression by police brutality, like an annual tradition that leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. The demonstrators decided to keep control of the sidewalks rather than be chased off the streets by violent and insulting police officers, and attacked the neighborhood’s worst businesses: Dollarama and the National Bank. Let’s remember that if Dollarama is a grocery store of last resort for the poor, it still sells unhealthy crap and is one of the worst companies in Quebec for abusing its workers. And on the other side, the National Bank is investing billions in several important oil projects. In the face of this self-defense of the poor against their oppressors, the police violently attacked the demonstration: truncheons, gas and beatings were the order of the day.
We demonstrated in St-Henri, a poor, working class neighborhood that is increasingly being slaughtered by gentrification, like many others across the city. The arrival of new, hip businesses has driven out the old, affordable spaces, and rents are now skyrocketing. But St-Henri is also this high place of colonialism, close to the railroads, the Lachine Canal … in short, everything that is used to plunder indigenous lands. The workers of St-Henri know this well, they have worked for a long time in the sweatshops of the area to transform this plunder into junk too expensive for them. And if most of the sweatshops are gone, the looting is still going on, whether it is through the construction of condos in Kanien’kehá:ka territory, or the construction of a pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territory, or ancient wood cutting in Pacheedaht territory.
We must indeed shutdown the colonial police. It’s colonial, because that’s what the police are for, to defend the settlers. It is the armed arm of the israeli state that defends the settlers in Palestine. It is the armed wing of saudi arabia that is invading yemen. And it is the armed wing of russia which is invading ukraine. And while canada supports ukraine — and that’s good — it doesn’t hesitate to give weapons to the strongarm of repression, both in israel and in saudi arabia. And canada is arming its own RCMP, its colonial police force, to intervene on unceded indigenous lands, whether it be Wet’suwet’en land or the Pacheedaht land.
We have nothing to lose but our chains. All attacks on the State and Capital are justified.
Finally, we are calling for witnesses: if you have been arrested, brutalized or have witnessed police brutality, please contact the COBP at: cobp@riseup.net
We also remind you to be careful about what you post on social media.
Comments Off on Albums Against the Invasion by Anarchist Black Cross Musical Solidarity Group
Mar162022
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Shortly after the first bombs started falling on Ukrainian cities in the invasion by Russian forces, anti-authoritarian musicians around the world began collaborating with members of Anarchist Black Cross collectives to respond. Now, two compilation albums have been released to raise money for anarchists fighting the invasion on the front lines in Ukraine, and behind the lines in Russia.
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military requires Putin to direct violence on both sides of the battle lines. As his bombers and artillery shell Ukrainian cities, and his tanks roll over Ukrainian fields and wallow in the springtime mud, the Russian state maintains the discipline of war at home. The OMON and FSB target anti-war protestors. The media shut down under threat of prison for speaking the truth about the war. When conscripts refuse to participate in this imperialist war, they face threats and punishments from their officers.
In Kyiv and other cities, the Ukrainian anarchist movement- which includes many exiled Russian and Belarusian comrades- has taken up arms. They are fighting to defend their communities, their comrades, and a liberatory vision of the future of Ukraine, separate from the aspirations of the Right or of the state. Meanwhile, across Russia, our comrades take to the street whether by day in mass marches, or by night to spread the truth about the war through creative means, or to take more direct actions. One draft office has already been burned near Moscow. In the words of that heroic arsonist, “Let [the oligarchs] know that their own people hate them and we will extinguish them. Soon the earth will start to burn under their feet. Hell awaits at home”.
By supporting the fight against the invasion at both the front and behind the lines, we hope to nurture the seeds of the movement that can turn this war between nations into a revolution against the ruling class- a new spring of autonomy and solidarity sweeping across the steppe.
The first album, “The Deserter”, is fund-raising for the Anarchist Black Cross in Moscow. It will support the legal defense and general protection of those within the Russian Federation who are resisting the war and fighting back against the clampdown by the Russian state. Featuring a black poppy and the crossed-out “Z” of the anti-war movement on its cover, the album features songs about political prisoners, inflation, soldiers’ mothers, barricades, and of course, desertion.
The second album, “Mother Anarchy”, is raising money for he Anarchist Black Cross Dresden, to be directed towards their ongoing support work for the Committee of Resistance, an anarchist unit within the Territorial Defense forces, formed by anti-authoritarian activists in Ukraine. Beginning with the song “Mother Anarchy” written by Nestor Makhno, by album takes us on a journey through South African hip hop, lo-fi, German punk, ska, and Makhnovist rewrites of Cossack ballads.
The artist lineup includes such acts as Soundz of the South, Darryl Cherney, the Window Smashing Job Creators, Maske, Soho, and a folk collective formed for this project going by the pseudonym Tachanka.
The albums are being sold at the ABC Musical Solidarity Bandcamp for at least $8 each, with the option to pay more to support the cause.
The following call to action originally appeared in Russian on avtonom.org, the platform that emerged from the Russia-wide anarchist network Autonomous Action.
Our Russian colleagues report that, under a new law introduced this week, those who are found guilty of spreading misinformation about the invasion of Ukraine can be sentenced to years in prison. This apparently includes those who simply refer to the invasion as a “war,” rather than a “special operation,” as Putin’s government has insisted on doing. In this context, demonstrators show tremendous courage taking to the streets.
The next mass day of protest is scheduled for this Sunday, March 6. We hope their efforts will be echoed by demonstrators around the world, placing pressure from all directions on the Russian government, the global capitalist class, military profiteers, and all the other forces that are abetting the invasion.
To support political prisoners in Russia, donate to the Anarchist Black Cross in Moscow here. To support anarchists in Ukraine, donate here or here. There is also a solidarity structure to support refugees fleeing from Ukraine.
The chief supporters of the prevailing order in Russia today.Anti-war demonstrators in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Spring Is Coming: Take to the Streets against the War
The Russian army has invaded Ukraine. Putin has lost his senses and his army is bombing cities, shooting civilians, and killing children. More than one million people have fled the country in order to escape from Putin’s “liberators.”
We refuse to submit to Russian military censorship. We say openly and clearly: this is war. This is a war of conquest and the Russian army is running it. With weapons in their hands, Ukrainians are successfully defending themselves from the invaders, but we, who are inside Russia, cannot stand aside from these events. We must show each other and the world that we are against this war, that only Putin and his gang need it. To be against the war is genuine anti-fascism right now.
March 6, this coming Sunday, is the general day of anti-war actions in Russia. Take the central square of your city! One of the meeting points in Moscow is the Square of the train stations at 15:00. There are also meetings at 19:00 and other times. Decide and organize for yourselves, team up with your friends. The main thing is to get out on the streets.
The Russian authorities are panicking now. They have realized that they are losing this war. That is why they hysterically threaten anti-war protesters—with expulsion, or with dismissal, or with immediate conscription into the army, or with jail. Don’t be afraid of them. Ukrainians in their cities go out into the streets with bare hands to protest against the invaders. They are standing against solders with riffles, against tanks. How can one be afraid of the rusty machinery of the Russian police?
We demand an immediate end to the war. We demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. This is the main condition for any further action: the aggression of the Russian Federation must stop. We must stop the slaughter of people. Yes, Putin didn’t ask us when he planned the invasion—but we didn’t stop him in time. So it is important to do it at least now.
Of course, our main goal now is to stop the war in Ukraine. But we have to fight for the future of Russia, as well. There isn’t much time left for this deranged dictator. His small victorious war didn’t go according to the plan and now his removal is only a matter of time and concrete means. But what happens next, after Putin?
The lands of the “Russian Federation” are now at a historical crossroads. The collapse of Putin’s regime may trigger the process of liberation. Sure, they won’t lead to anarchist ideals immediately—but at least Russia will no longer be at war with the rest of the world and with its own population. In this wave of changes, there will be opportunities for serious changes in the political system towards greater decentralization—for example, the complete abolition of the presidency and the transition to a parliamentary republic, which we have been talking about for a long time.
However, there’s another possibility for “what comes next” after Putin: the regime transforming into a pupal stage, into an even more authoritarian regime—the complete closure of all borders and the cessation of international contacts. Blocking half of the Internet in Russia tonight is only the first sign. There will no longer be any forces left for aggressive wars, but this will not make it easier for the inhabitants: they will find themselves in a state reminiscent of North Korea. And there is absolutely no anarchist movement in North Korea. None.
The face of the future of Russia as well as the present? It remains to be seen.
Now, in the coming days and weeks, we all have a unique window of opportunity. Putin’s authoritarian regime has made a fatal mistake and is reeling. If the psychopath in the Kremlin does not press the nuclear button, he will not live long. And now everything depends on us, the inhabitants of Russia. If we remain silent, then the agenda will quickly be hijacked by isolationists and conservatives, who are in the majority in the upper levels of power. But if we are active, we will win. A rusted leviathan needs only to be pushed and it will crumble into dust.
Take the streets on March 6. If you can’t go out on March 6, go out on other days. If you can’t go out at all, protest against the war in other ways: distribute leaflets and posters, stick up stickers, write “no war” on medical masks, hang posters from balconies. Finally, talk to people. This is now more important than studies, more important than work, more important than anything else in the world. Now the fate of not only Ukraine, but also Russia is being decided. Our future is being determined—and only we will be responsible for what it will be.
A sticker reading “No War” in St. Petersburg, Russia.A sticker reading “No War” on an urban map in St. Petersburg, Russia.A sign affixed to a backpack via charming pins, belonging to a Russian anti-war protester.
Sex Workers Demand Full Decriminalization of their Work
Sex workers cannot be ignored anymore. In unceded territories that we call Canada, like elsewhere around the world, they continue to be targeted by harmful policies that criminalize sex work and sex workers, under the guise of saving them from human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Far from reaching their goals of eradicating the sex industry, these policies instead marginalize and isolate sex workers from social and legal services, and increase their vulnerability to violence. In response to this repression, sex workers organize to demand better working conditions and equally, worker status with the rights and social protections that comes with that. We argue that it isn’t the nature of the work itself (the exchange of sexual services for money) that exposes sex workers to violence, but rather the repressive laws that govern it.
The implementation of the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA) in 2014 made sex work illegal for the first time in Canada. The PCEPA prohibits communicating for the sale of sex in a public space; prohibits advertising the sexual services of another person; prohibits profiting materially from sex work; and criminalizes the purchase of sexual services in any and all contexts. This legislative regime, advocated by many anti-prostitution feminist groups, claims to eliminate demand by criminalizing clients and third parties in order to abolish the sex industry. In fact, since its passage, this law has made sex workers more precarious and vulnerable to violence. By representing sex workers as victims, these laws normalize rather than combat violence against them.
Indeed, these laws create unsafe and exploitative work environments and maintain substandard working conditions. These conditions are the source of sex workers’ daily worries, ranging from difficulties in getting paid to the impossibility of denouncing violence by clients, employers and law enforcement through legal procedures. For those who work independently, criminalization remains an issue, as clients are less likely to provide important security information such as their real identity. This makes it difficult for sex workers to create and maintain important safety mechanism at work, and has led to the murder of several sex workers. For those who work on the street, the prohibition on communicating for the sale of sexual services in public spaces (near parks, schools and daycares) means that they end up working in secluded, poorly lit areas – out of reach of being witnessed – putting them at greater risk of violence. Immigration laws in addition to criminal provisions around sex work encourage more surveillance of migrant sex workers in the industry, and as a result, they may face loss of status, detention, and deportation if their work is discovered – even if they work in legal sectors of the industry such as licensed massage parlors and strip clubs.
Decriminalization was implemented in New Zealand 20 years ago, and as a result, sex workers are able to put safety mechanisms into place for their work and seek recourse when they experience violence on the job. This government has just started to initiate its mandated task of studying the impacts of PCEPA, even though it should’ve been done five years after its implementation. Time is running out, as sex workers continue to suffer the impacts of criminalization!
We need to repeal the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act and decriminalization of sex work now!
This letter was signed by 68 individuals and 50 organizations, all over the unceded indigenous territories that we call Canada, in different sectors: unions, academic, arts, harm reduction, STI prevention, women, migrant, indigenous and trans rights.
Organizations:
Tables des organismes montréalais de lutte contre le sida (TOMS)
Stella, l’amie de Maimie
Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC)
Sex Workers of Winnipeg Action Coalition (SWWAC)
Answer Society
HIV Legal Network
Peers Victoria Resources Society
Projet LUNE
Solidarité Sans Frontière
Après l’Asphalte
Tout.e ou pantoute podcast
Closet space Winnipeg
Defund the police
Plein Milieu
Centre Associatif Polyvalent d’Aide hépatite C (CAPAHC)
Chapitre Montréalais des Socialiste Démocratiques du Canada
Projet Intervention Prostitution Québec (PIPQ)
Fondation Filles d’Action
AlterHéros
2fxflematin
Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs en intervention communautaire (STTIC-CSN)
Aide aux trans du Québec (ATQ)
No Borders Media
Queer McGill
Midnight Kitchen
Collectif Un Salaire Pour Toustes les Stagiaires (SPTS)
Collectif Opposé à la Brutalité Policière (COBP)
REZO -santé et mieux-être des hommes gais et bisexuels, cis et trans
BRUE
PIAMP
Pivot Legal Society
Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM)
Sphère – Santé sexuelle globale
Dopamine
AIDS Community Care Montreal (ACCM)
Defund Network 604
Projet de Travailleurs de Soutien aux Autochtones (PTSA)/Indigenous Support Workers Project (ISWP)
Indigenous Sex Work and Art Collective (ISWAC)
Game Workers Unite Montréal
Rue Action prévention (RAP Jeunesse)
Sex Worker Aotearoa Network
Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project
PIECE Edmonton
Moms stop the harm
Collectif NU.E.S
Centre for Gender & Sexual Health Equity
AGIR: Action LGBTQ+ avec les immigrant.es et les réfugié.es
Comments Off on RBC Quebec President Evening Home Visit! *Video*
Mar012022
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Around dinner time on the night of February 23rd, two dozen anticolonial militants paid a surprise visit to RBC Quebec president Nadine Renaud-Tinker, at her 734 Upper Lansdowne avenue Westmount home. While Indigenous land defenders and settler accomplices resist wave after wave of colonial assaults to defend the Wet’suwet’en Yintah and the Wedzin Kwa river, investors like RBC comfortably profit off of the ongoing genocide of First Peoples and the destruction of unceded land for capitalist extractivist projects. Let’s remember that the Royal Bank of KKKanada leads a group of 27 banks providing the 6.8 billion dollars needed to build the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. It has, since 2016, contributed more than 200 billion dollars to the fossil fuel industry.
Though it is neither possible nor desirable to recreate the cruelty financed by president Renaud-Tinker on Wet’suwet’en land, militants wished for her to also experience the feeling of seeing unwelcomed visitors at her doorstep. They stayed for more than an hour, chanting slogans and dancing to music. The energy was high and comrades didn’t shy away from expressing their dissatisfaction, before leaving safely.
Following the recent sabotage of a Coastal GasLink drill site, increased RCMP repression and surveillance is already being deployed on Wet’suwet’en territory, and our solidarity is more important than ever! Stay tuned, the fight continues! #AllOutForWedzinKwa
