Month: Apr 2018

Afrin and Northern Syria: weekly News Update

Weekly Bulletin about Developments in Afrin and Northern Syria (30.03.2018 – 05.04.2018)
By | April 6, 2018 ..  illustrations added

Introduction

With the defeat of the IS in Syria and especially after the liberation of Raqqa in October 2017, the Turkish state intensified its threats and attacks on the Democratic Confederation of Northern Syria. On this background the Turkish occupation war on Afrin started on the 20th January 2018 violating international law and the sovereignty of its neighbour country.

The Turkish army has launched this war in cooperation with jihadist groups of the FSA ranks. Many of them are former Al-Qaida or IS members. Since the beginning of March, all districts and the city centre of Afrin had been under heavy bombardments, shelling and drone surveillance by the Turkish army targeting especially civilians.

#BreakSilenceOnAfrin One of the hundreds of former ISIS fighters who fled to Turkey, recruited as “FSA” and now is attacking Afrin together with turks. This is turkey’s war on Kurds.

On March 18th more than 200,000 people left the town centre and were evacuated in order to avoid a physical genocide. Since then the majority of refugees are staying in the Shehba region without security guarantees or international support.

In this new phase, the confrontation between the international powers and their interests is increasing all over Syria.

Last week’s Developments inside Afrin

After 78 days of resistance against Turkish occupation war, hundreds of thousands of people from Afrin Canton are still displaced and facing difficult conditions. The Turkish army and its jihadist allies are implementing ethnic cleansing, assimilation and colonisation policies, making preparations to add the region Afrin de-facto to Turkey’s state territory.

At the same time thousands of jihadists have been transferred from Goutha to Afrin to create demographic changes and install an Islamic-Turkish order.

The resistance of YPG-YPJ forces in the all districts of Canton Afrin carries on, as well as the resistance of the displaced people from Afrin in Sherawa and Shehba region.

Civilians run for cover from explosions in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018, after Turkish forces and their rebel allies took control of the Kurdish-majority city.

Turkey has extended it threats now towards Til Rifat/Shehba region, Minbij and Shingal. Moreover, the tension between the two blocks Russia-Turkey-Iran and the US lead International Coalition are growing.

War and Humanitarian Situation

The conditions of Afrin’s people displaced in Shehba region are still very precarious and insecure. However, works to build camps and to organised delivery of supplies and humanitarian aid are organised by the Democratic Self-administrations of Northern Syria and the Kurdish Red Crescent. Continue reading “Afrin and Northern Syria: weekly News Update”

Signs of a French Spring against Fierce State Oppression… May 68 to May 18 ?

Grèves aux usines Citroen lors des mouvements et manifestations survenus en France durant les évènements de Mai 68 à Paris, France, en mai 1968 .

By  Cole Stangler    at Jacobin  shared with thanks                             A wave of strikes and a student revolt has shaken France in recent days — but can it provide the first real challenge to Macron’s agenda?Rail workers from the Force Ouvrière union on strike in Paris . FranceInfo

This isn’t the first significant unrest under President Emmanuel Macron — his labor reforms last year were opposed by strikes and days of action — but the current wave is broader in scope. A weekend strike at France’s largest employer, supermarket Carrefour, was followed by strikes on the trains and at airports at the start of this week that have severely impacted transport in the country — and now a burgeoning student movement is joining in support.It’s far from clear whether these various protests will coalesce into a unified movement. They remain largely isolated for now. But the potential for what French left-wing activists term a “convergence of struggles” is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Here’s an overview of the situation:
After joining civil servants in protest on March 22, rail workers across France kicked off rolling strikes Tuesday. Unions are calling on the government to abandon proposed reforms that would cut worker benefits and inaugurate what they see as the first phase of a full-scale privatization of the national publicly owned rail system, the French National Railway Corporation (SNCF). Under strike plans, workers will engage in a series of two-day job actions separated by three-day intervals until June 28. Continue reading “Signs of a French Spring against Fierce State Oppression… May 68 to May 18 ?”

Live and Love the Revolution: at Self managed Anarcho-Pirate Camp: ZAD!

Notre-Dame-Des-Landes, France: Callout for self-managed anarcho-pirate camp

– shared from    Squat.net   with thanks

At the camp of the ANGRY Lama (or the “LA Masacrée”) [at the Zad], we are not giving up and we over-occupy.

A tent houses the kitchen (vegan / freegan), the new building with a wooden floor continues to rise, with three walls, a roof and a large bay window, trees were planted …

We meet every day to build, exchange, monitor the cops who monitor us (nice atmosphere of de-escalation …). We organize ourselves.

Because we do not want to manage everything or manage others, but create the breeding ground to give birth to an organisation done by and for all, without giving place to power struggles, without structural oppression (sex, race, class, .. .). Continue reading “Live and Love the Revolution: at Self managed Anarcho-Pirate Camp: ZAD!”

Remembering Paul Z. Simons: An Unyielding Anarchist, Author, and Rebel

By  CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective
We’re saddened to announce the passing of Paul Z. Simons, longtime anarchist, journalist, and author. Paul was an anarchist writer with a playful spirit, an uncompromising love of life, and equally uncompromising hatred for authority—be it from the right or the left. We treasure our memories of Paul. His presence will be sorely missed.

Recalled by his eldest daughter as “a uniquely intelligent writer, traveler, idealist, and fire-breathing anarchist,” Paul participated in some of the most inspiring thought and action of the past forty years.

We are not equipped to properly write his eulogy, but we hope others will, and now that he is no longer able to speak to you himself, we urge you to read the materials he left behind.

Paul wrote with great eloquence and erudition on everything from theater to insurrectionary strategy, from play to hallucinogens. In his history writing, he explored everything from the anti-racist insurgency of John Brown to the English Revolution of 1645 from an insurrectionary perspective. Continue reading “Remembering Paul Z. Simons: An Unyielding Anarchist, Author, and Rebel”

Catalan CDRs raise Barriers and Call for not paying Motorway Tolls

note: Facebook has banned me from sharing this post for 2 days

The CDR open the toll barriers of La Roca on Sunday afternoon
Àngel Garcia

The Republic Defense Committees (CDRs) have called for the first massive Civil Disobedience Action Today. Instead of blocking the froads they have called for a popular refusal to pay abusive motorway tolls on the return from the Easter Holiday.

The CDRs are a network of autonomous, horizontally organized,  local defense groups which sprang up in response to the massive violent crackdown by the Spanish State on the Catalan Referendum which voted for a Republic.

Abusive motorway tolls are a sore point for Catalans because they hardly exist in Spain where the infrastructure gets more State finance

by Gemma Garcia  at La Directa ..The CDRs calls for not paying tolls and raise the barriers in the Return Home operation .The Defense Committees of the Republic recovered the slogan of the 2012 campaign “I do not want to pay.”Already on Sunday afternoon, they opened the toll barriers of La Roca and other points of the AP-7 north/south motorway and put bags over the cameras to avoid fines. Continue reading “Catalan CDRs raise Barriers and Call for not paying Motorway Tolls”

‘Spycop’ scandal Hits new low with Claim that Officer exploited Elderly Activist as part of Cover

by Tom Coburg at The Canary.. shared with thanks

An undercover police officer allegedly befriended an elderly activist as cover for intelligence-gathering. She was partially blind and deaf. The ‘spycop’ went on to head Special Branch.

Exploitation

During 1980 and 1981, police officer Roger Pearce used the cover name Roger Thorley to spy on members of the anarchist Freedom Press in London’s Whitechapel. As ‘Thorley’, he wrote several articles [pdf] for the newspaper Freedom, attacking the police.

As part of his cover, he is alleged to have been a ‘chauffeur’ for veteran anarchist Leah Feldman. At the time, Feldman was in her 80s, was partially deaf and blind, and often needed help moving around.

The spycop

Roger Pearce went on to head the Special Demonstration Squad and oversaw the creation of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit. He was later appointed Director of Intelligence; and Commander, Special Branch. On leaving the police service, he was appointed Counter-Terrorism Adviser to the Foreign Office.

Pearce was first identified as an undercover police officer in June 2014. In March 2017, Lord Pitchford (then head of the Undercover Policing Inquiry) refused [pdf] anonymity status for Pearce. The inquiry subsequently revealed that Pearce had infiltrated anarchist groups from 1979 to 1984.

In July 2013, when Pearce was asked about the practice of undercover police officers forming sexual relationships so as to gain intelligence, he said:

the [Special] Branch was inviting individual officers to live a false life for four or five or more years, the false friendship can develop and escalate into a sexual relationship. So it’s almost inevitable that these took place and I am making no moral judgement about them at all. Continue reading “‘Spycop’ scandal Hits new low with Claim that Officer exploited Elderly Activist as part of Cover”

Erdogan to install Jihadi allies in Afrin after expelling Kurds + Defend Afrin News

Turkish PM: ”We will put 350,000 ‘Syrians’ into Afrin”, – After expelling Kurds and 170,000 internal refugees -Turkey is openly conducting a policy of “ethnic cleansing” in the area

“Once we have purged the terrorists (from Afrin) we will then cleanse them from Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Ra’s al-Ayn and Qamishli,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

A classic British colonial tactic was the ‘confiscation’ of conquered lands, especially in Ireland, and the settling of this land with soldiers in lieu of pay, or families from Great Britain. This resulted in ongoing conflict, hatred, violence and war right down to the present day.

Shame: EU gives 595 million euros Blackmail Payment to nazi dictator Erdogan

In the middle of the Invasion of Afrin the EU shamefully confirmed the second tranche of 3 billion euros to Turkey in exchange for blocking refugees entering Europe.

Shame: EU gives 595 million euros Blackmail Payment to nazi dictator Erdogan.

Erdogan boasts openly that the same is happening in Afrin. Though he sometimes says the settlers will be ‘Syrian refugees’ at others he says they will be FSA mercenaries and their families, as well as Turkmen refugees from other parts of Syria and boasts that the ‘Ottoman Empire will rise from the ashes’.

Afrin nearly doubled its population in  hosted refugees despite a siege blockade (172k to 323k )  while Turkey’s only increased by 4.4%  (3.5 million out of 80 million).(The total population of Afrin as of 2005 was recorded at only 172,095 people, of whom 36,562 lived in the town of Afrin itself.  Wikipedia. According to the United Nations, Efrin district ….has a population of 323,000 people.)

Afrin while suffering from an economic and military blockade hosted a huge number of Arab, Christian, Assyrian and Turkmen internal refugees and was hailed as a  model of direct democracy, gender equalty and religious and ethnic tolerance. We care for these people but we are not sure how to attend to their needs when our small city has been blocked from all sides,” Mahmoud, a refugee camp director,  added. The Turkish takeover has forced a mass exodus amidst documented reports of mass murder, widespread looting , kidnapping, rape and pillage by the Jihadi mercenaries and Turkish militar

Dozens of girls missing in Afrin      A mother looking for her 14-year-old girl who was abducted in Afrin under invasion, stated that dozens of girls are held captive and raped by Turkish forces and allied gangs.

The Future under Turkish Rule.

The future looks bleak. Large areas of SE Turkey, Cizre, Nusaybin  etc, itself lie in ruins under special forces military occupation and frequent curfews after the Turkish State pogroms against the peaceful ‘Kurdish Spring’.

All they asked for was autonomous local government. Nusaybin is one of many Kurdish towns being wiped out on the orders of Erdogan, the darling of Europe.
All they asked for was autonomous local government, feminism and real democracy. Nusaybin is one of many Kurdish towns being wiped out by the dictator Erdogan, the darling of Europe.

Afrin can expect a similar fate. Even if Turkey decided to lift the blockade and allow in some aid with a view to legitimizing its future conquests it can only hold onto Afrin by permanent and total military repression of the popular defense force volunteers. Continue reading “Erdogan to install Jihadi allies in Afrin after expelling Kurds + Defend Afrin News”