From the Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes
A video that was sent to us by comrades to celebrate 15 years!
From the Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes
The Whole Orchard launches its third episode of the second season. This month, the podcast addresses the stakes surrounding the police in Indigenous territories, whether led by native people or settlers.
We talk about the Kanien’kéha language camp in Akwesasne and the relation of Indigenous communities with police forces with one of the founders of the camp.
To learn more about the langugage camp: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/reclaiming-land-language
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Monday April 11th, 2022
Tiohtià:ke/Montreal
In the early afternoon, a small group of anarchists snuck into the RBC offices at Place Ville-Marie. Armed with flyers, stickers and spray paint cans, they left a message for the bank: DIVEST FROM CGL. Since the Fall of 2021, the Wet’suwet’en have been actively campaigning for RBC to stop funding the destruction of their land, but RBC continues to ignore them.
As long as RBC is funding pipeline projects, they will find us in their way.
– some fucking angry anarchists
Imminent Threat: Coastal Gaslink (CGL) is set to drill under the Wedzin Kwa this Spring 2022. The people, land, language and culture of Wet’suwet’en as well as the animals residing on these territories are facing annihilation of their lifeways. For those who have heard the call to action, this upcoming year is crucial to the future of Wet’suwet’en self-determination and sovereignty.
Solidarity actions keep the Gidimt’en fight visible and the people on the frontlines safer from police repression and CGL harassment (https://twitter.com/Gidimten/status/1450808498833473549) Just in the past month alone, the RCMP made 54 visits to Gidimt’en Checkpoint, waking elders at all hours of the night and threatening arrest. These ongoing acts of intimidation and police repression are a part of a broader strategy by the Canadian state to use the legal and judicial systems to continue to deny Wet’suwet’en sovereignty, despite the fact that the Canadian judicial system recognized Wet’suwet’en sovereignty in the Delgamuukw v British Columbia decision.
Longterm Struggle: Commitment is a long breath that is constantly threatened by exhaustion. This struggle against CGL takes on many dimensions: decolonial, environmental, anti-capitalist and feminist. The numerous “man camps” invading the Yintah intensifies and facilitates men’s ability to kidnap, rape and murder Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited individuals (see the Final Report by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, p. 593). As long as CGL and the RCMP remain on the territory so too do the heightened levels of colonial gendered violence.
We continue to support Gidimt’en Checkpoint’s fight against Coastal GasLink and extractive companies because the struggle towards Indigenous self-determination is a long, arduous struggle. Solidarity organizing is most effective when it is consistent and strategic. Our ongoing efforts contributes to the strength and `visibility of their fight for self-determination, sovereignty, and freedom.
Imagine the strength and capacity of solidarity work if people engaging in this kind of organizing had personal and collective stakes in the game? For instance, there are many Indigenous people fighting across Turtle Island to be free from the settler state and to be free to govern themselves as they deem in accordance to their own ways. There are also many non-Indigenous people fighting to be as free as they can from the institutionalization and regulation of their bodies, relationships, and communities. These varying experiences and histories of struggle provide a basis for profound points of connection.
Imagination is an asset when it facilitates various ways to make this fight visible. Adapt the tactics and organizing strategies to your capacities and resources. Most importantly, act. It’s time.
Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info
This week across southern ontario and quebec, we’ve lost count on how many RBC branches were targeted (we estimate 10+) for disruption and attack. So-called toronto, hamilton, montreal… friends in places as small as orillia and as distant as nanaimo. These actions respond to a need to target investors in the Coastal Gaslink pipeline project – which is currently behind schedule thanks to the direct attack that took place in february as well as the successful campaigns to block the project thus far lead by Gidimt’en Clan – but is still rapidly being constructed on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.
RBC is one of its largest financial backers, and in the past week and preceding months, has been the subject of pressure tactics ranging from direct action interfering with bank branches, to pushing elites/clients to pull their money out of RBC accounts, to organizing to disrupt RBC’s Annual General Meeting in Toronto. The message is clear: the Royal Bank of Canada needs to divest from CGL immediately.
In hamilton, where we’re writing from, bank branches were vandalized, had their locks glued, and ATMs damaged. We chose these methods to directly interfere with the operations of the bank, hurt them financially and in their public image, and to contribute to the spread of easily-replicable, anonymous actions.
RBC was the central target this week, but they are not alone in complicity. We can also set our sights on other big banks, TC Energy, many related contractors and developers, the RCMP, and the State of so-called Canada.
This is only going to escalate. CGL, and their financial allies like RBC, perpetuate the situation by continuing their exploitative projects and violent attacks on Wet’suwet’en territory. The Wedzin Kwa remains under the looming threat of being destroyed via drill. Elders, matriarchs, supporters, comrades, and land defenders face daily assault. We all need to prepare for more, to respond with more boldness, to do more damage. If they push, then we then will push back, but harder. With only a bit of planning and courage, we can act in ways that feed our spirits and keep the fight alive. Stay safe, and we look forward to seeing your work out there in the days to come.
From Act for Freedom Now!
Actforfree received by email:
Justice for Anarchist Prisoner Toby Shone!
Anarchist prisoner Toby Shone is being held in the Category B facility HM Prison Parc, a privately run prison in South Wales, despite being in reality a Category C or D prisoner who was eligible for Release on Temporary License (ROTL) on 21 January 2022, according to paperwork he received on 26th March 2022. ROTL is home leave from prison in preparation for release. Category B prisoners are not eligible for home leave.
Despite being found Not Guilty of political offences in court and with no evidence linking him to the website and publication 325.nostate.net, Toby is being held without legal process and without possibility of redress as a Category B, High Risk prisoner where he is not eligible for ROTL (home leave). A probation official told Toby previously that his categorisation is a consequence of his anarchist beliefs, and the fact that he is considered by the authorities to act on those beliefs. This decision has been taken at a level above the Offender Management Unit (OMU) which is the unit Toby personally deals with.
His beliefs are also the reason that police are pursuing a Serious Crime Prevention Order against Toby which will allow the police to monitor and control all aspects of Toby’s life and monitor his associates for five years. The Order means he can be imprisoned again for an additional five years should he breach the Order which is so intrusive, it would be impossible not to. The hearing for the SCPO is on the morning of 6 May 2022 at Bristol Crown Court.
Toby was ghosted from HMP Bristol on Friday 18th March. While at Bristol, the prison withheld two parcels of legal papers sent by his legal team and which he has never received. He was permanently confined to his cell at HM Prison Parc between March 18th and March 29th with no exercise, no time out of his cell except for one shower, minimal interaction (guards frequently just throw his food on the floor and shut the door), and refusal of healthcare which he requested due to an eye infection (he has now received treatment).
Unlike most prisons where you can purchase your own fruit and vegetables to supplement the prison food which is unfit for human health, HMP & YOI Parc deny prisoners this possibility by designating fresh food a “security risk”. They also force prisoners to choose between phone credit to stay in touch with loved ones and necessities from the prison shop. In most prisons, phone credit is additional to the weekly spend on extra food and toiletries, but at Parc phone credit has to be bought out of the weekly spend allowance.
Director of HM Parc, Janet Wallsgrove was awarded an OBE this year by the Queen for “services to the prison service”. HM Prison Parc is a leader in prison slavery and routinely locks young offenders and adults up beyond the legal limit. One prisoner on Toby’s wing has been locked up for 24 hours a day for 18 days. This is torture, but no surprise that Parc is running this kind of regime – this prison is run by G4S, whose guards are famous for murdering Angolan man Jimmy Mubenga on a crowded passenger plane on 12 October 2010.
You can write to Toby at:
Toby Shone A7645EP
HMP Prison Parc
Heol Hopcyn John,
Coity,
Bridgend CF35 6AP
UK
Donations can be made to:
The Bottled Wasp
Sort Code: 08-92-99
Acc No: 65601648
IBAN: GB35 CPBK 0892 9965 6016 48
BIC: CPBK GB22
Ref: ADREAM
Take action in solidarity with Toby!
Fuck the prison system!
From subMedia
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.
#ACAB #1312 #FTP
From the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality
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.
* We thank André Querry for the photos
The COBP
From CrimethInc.
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 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.
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.
Winter is ending. Spring is coming.
From the Sex Work Autonomous Committee (SWAC)
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!
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:
Individuals:
Анонімне надходження в MTL Counter-info
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Дисклеймер: це відео призначене виключно для інформаційних цілей і жодним чином не заохочує й не виправдовує жодну незаконну діяльність.
Ми вважаємо, що важливо поширювати тактичні знання зі спротиву для майбутніх штормів повстання. Тактика спротиву може убезпечити нас, тому що поліція починає боятися. Нам потрібно бути обережними, граючи з вогнем, але з правильним підходом молотови можуть значно посилити нас на вулицях.
Інгредієнти:
Порожні пивні пляшки 500 мл
Рукавички
Бензин
Моторне масло
Лійка
Марля або смужки футболки
Скотч
Ніколи не торкайтеся матеріалів без рукавичок, щоб не залишити відбитки пальців.
Спочатку наполовину наповніть пивну пляшку сумішшю з 2/3 бензину і 1/3 моторного масла. Моторне масло продовжить і поширить горіння. Залиште вільний простір у пляшці, щоб вона заповнилась газом і коктейль вийшов більш вибухонебезпечним.
Для гніту (смужки тканини або марлі) зав’яжіть вузол, який пройде у шийку пляшки на 1 дюйм (2,54 см) від верху. Гніт повинен сягати бензину. Вузол повинен триматися, якщо перевернути пляшку догори дном. Використовуйте скотч, щоб зробити отвір більш герметичним, оскільки бензин випаровується.
Для більших молотових використовуйте пляшки з-під вина з кришкою, яку можна закрутити назад. Також підходять скляні пляшки з-під води з кришкою, яка закручується.
Молотови з пивних пляшок можна транспортувати в упаковці. Зав’яжіть їх у пакети для сміття, щоб зменшити запах бензину та не залишати відбитки пальців.
Перші 30 секунд після запалення найбезпечніші, для того щоб кидати молотов.
Для більших молотових можна використовувати пляшки з-під вина з кришкою, яка закручується назад. Пляшка з-під води також підходить.
Молотови з пивних пляшок можна транспортувати в упаковці. Зав’яжіть їх у пакети для сміття, щоб менше пахло бензином та щоб не залишати відбитків пальців.
Найбезпечніше кидати молотов не більше ніж через 30 секунд, після запалення.
Будьте в безпеці! Будьте злі!
