War against war – Report from anti-war assembly in Milan

from thefreeonline 12 Jul 2023 by Angry Workers at On the war

Alongside the wars without end in the Middle East and Africa, the meat grinder in Ukraine following the Russian invasion is well into its second year.

The populations on both sides of the front line suffer the effects of ramped up militarisation, authoritarianism and repression. During this phase of the war, the civilian inhabitants of the Ukrainian state’s post-2014 “zone of control” have suffered greatly from the missiles and drone attacks.

Conscript soldiers on both sides have become cannon fodder. As the front line and military targets shift, so do the horrors.

The damage to the Kakhovka dam “displaced more than 20,000 people across dozens of settlements, including in Russian-held areas on the river’s lower-left bank.”

The decision by the USA to supply cluster bombs will add new and ongoing terrors particularly for those civilians near wherever the front line happens to be.

In recent months the determination of both sides to extend the carnage has continued unabated, despite any differences amongst the political-military puppet masters.

In Russia, the tension between Putin and Prigozhin reflects factional differences within the militarised gangster-capitalist apparatus.

‘Rally of Soldiers’ Women. The First Mass Social Protest in Ukraine 2023’, as well as those shown above. The new Verdun meat grinder near Bakhmut and Donetsk is gradually changing the attitude of the population towards the authorities. Title photo banner: “Enough! Tired!”…..

At the same time, Lukashenko, their partner in crime in Belarus, reminds assembled journalists that, whether or not he knows where Prigozhin and squads of Wagner mercenaries are, his state is definitely home to tactical nuclear weapons in case of need.

Meanwhile, at the NATO meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania marked another step towards escalation. For those in doubt, NATO General Secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, underlined that,

“Allies will take decisions to reinforce deterrence and defence, and agree a more ambitious defence investment pledge. The Secretary General also welcomed that Allies will be joined by the leaders of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, underscoring that security is not regional, but global”.

To top it all off, there’s the deal whereby Erdogan’s government has agreed to Sweden joining NATO.

F-16 Fighter Sale to Turkey – USNI

The deciding factor in the bloody bargain appears to be Biden’s backing for a massive new provision of weaponry for Turkey – an agreement which will mean more misery for Erdogan’s enemies, not least the inhabitants of the area controlled by the North East Syrian administration.

From the areas controlled by both Ukraine and Russia, men liable to conscription have attempted to avoid being sucked into the carnage by leaving the territories. The outflow from Russia alone was estimated at “hundreds of thousands” by a Professor of International Law in October 2022.

The emigrations have continued despite strong efforts by both the warring states to prevent people from leaving. We applaud all those who provide aid and support to the victims and war resistors both in the territories and elsewhere. Their efforts contrast with supporters of the various states and alliances who spew out arguments for more and ‘better’ military equipment and organisation until their chosen side’s war aims are achieved.

It is clear that, even after 15 months of mayhem, it is the ‘war until victory’ camp that still prevails in the popular discourse. Such a condition is no surprise. The ruling class’ masters of war endlessly nurture their military-industrial sectors and ‘Industrial Investment Partnerships’ to maintain and expand their power to exploit.

So long as workers are available, the bosses are not concerned about their ‘national identity’.

As Zelenskyy said to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on June 21st, “we are talking about … billions in corporate profits … And not only for Ukraine, but for all our countries – mine and yours.”

Against this drive to militarisation and misery, we applaud the meeting that recently took place in Milan.

* Proletarian Internationalist anti-war Assembly – Milan**

The Assembly on June 11th followed one held in Rome on 16th, October 2022. The four sponsors of the June event were Tendenza Internazionalista Rivoluzionaria (Revolutionary Internationalist Tendency), Fronte Comunista (Communist Front), Fronte della Gioventù Comunista (Communist Youth Front) and Collettivo Politico Iskra.

Triple Explosive Attack by Mapuche Resistance against Critical Infrastructure in Chile

from thefreeonline on 12th July 2023 by ABOLITION MEDIA

Los Álamos (Chile), June 9, 2023. The pylon of the high-voltage power line failed to withstand the shock of the attack.

In the course of one long weekend, three explosive attacks hit various critical infrastructures in Chile.

On Friday June 9, 2023, two high-voltage pylons were hit first. One at dawn in the municipality of Placilla, some ten kilometers east of Valparaíso, where Chile’s largest port and industrial facilities are located.

The second, at around 11 p.m., took place in Los Álamos (Bío Bío region), home to the special forces bases of the Carabineros and the Navy, one of the centers of Chile’s repressive policies.

While the first pylon, with two of its four support bars damaged, remained standing, the second collapsed to the ground, cutting off power between Cañete and Tirúa in the Los Álamos area.

The third attack occurred at around 3am on Tuesday June 13, on the railway bridge over the Itata river in the Ñuble region.

The bridge, whose sleepers were blown up and rails shattered by the explosion, is used for freight trains, and in particular for the movement of raw materials such as the thousands of industrial eucalyptus trees destined to supply the Nueva Aldea pulp mill of the Arauco company (Angelini Group).

Owned by Chile’s national railroad company (EFE), the line was operated by Ferrocarril del Pacífico (Fepasa), the main rail freight company in the south-central region of the country.

Ñuble region (Chile), June 13, 2023. The pulp industry’s railway bridge no longer functions

Following this series of coordinated attacks on strategic infrastructure in three different regions of Chile, (“leftist”) President Gabriel Boric took the opportunity to call an extraordinary meeting of all branches of government, at which he set the objective of making a reform proposal within 30 days, to simplify the Anti-Terrorism Act to facilitate prosecutions.

As is always the case in such cases, the aim is on the one hand for the government to make an announcement to assert that it is not standing idly by, and on the other hand to reinforce the authoritarian face of the state by bringing out an old project that was already in its files.

Finally, investigators from the Carabinieri’s OS-9 group announced that they would be studying footage of toll roads located near the attack sites, and that they were also in the process of collecting data on which phones were active near the affected infrastructures on the days and times of the attacks.

On June 14, 2023, in a communiqué sent to the press, these three consecutive attacks were claimed by a new coordination that had joined the panorama of diffuse guerrilla groups already present in Chile (notably in Mapuche territory): the Movimiento 18 de Octubre, or October 18 Movement, whose name is an explicit reference to the Chilean uprising that broke out on that day four years ago, following an increase in ticket prices.

On October 18, 2019, the first day of the uprising, 77 of the capital’s 136 metro stations had been destroyed (20 of them completely burned), before it spread over several months.

Placilla (Chile), June 9, 2023. The damaged pylon of the high-voltage line near Valparaíso.

In the communique, the October 18 Movement begins by taking responsibility for “three explosive attacks on capitalist infrastructures: the sabotage perpetrated in Valparaíso by Comando Mauricio Arenas Bejas, in Bío Bío by Comando Lafkenche Pilmaiquen and in Ñuble by Comando Luisa Toledo”.

One of these groups takes its name from Mapuche territory (the Pilmaiquen river flows through the territory of the coastal Mapuche, the Lafkenche).

The second is named after Mauricio Arenas Bejas, one of those responsible for the attempted assassination of General-Dictator Pinochet on September 7, 1986, who was arrested and shot seven times in the body by the police the following year, then escaped from Púbica prison in 1990, before dying the following year at the age of 33.

As for Luisa Toledo, who died in 2021 at the age of 82, she was a left-wing militant respected in many revolutionary milieus, notably for her struggle under the Pinochet dictatorship (but not only) for the memory of her two sons murdered by carabinieri in 1985 (they were members of the MIR), and also for her participation/defense of riotous demonstrations under democracy, including those of the October 2019 uprising.

Los Álamos (Chile), June 9, 2023. In the municipality where the Carabineros and Navy special forces bases are located…

As for the more precise content of this first claim of the October 18 Movement, which concludes with “Freedom for all political prisoners of the revolt, for the Mapuche, for the anarchists and for the subversives. A new ghost haunts Chile”, here is a longer excerpt translated from Spanish:

“The whole legal-political framework [that of drafting a new Constitution] undoubtedly seeks to consolidate the new process of capitalist accumulation through dispossession, where land and water have become the new commodities at the expense of the people under the pretext of economic growth.

“And here again, the government, which claims to be left-wing, has put its stamp of approval on the TPP11 [Free Trade Treaty between 11 countries in the Pacific zone signed in 2018], with the expansion of the Los Bronces mining company, the Quintero-Puchuncavi industrial pollution and its crude denial of the ecological disaster that the logging industry has generated in Wallmapu….

“The new order conceived by the political and business classes seeks to annihilate the dignified Mapuche resistance that, day after day, confronts the logging companies and landowners who usurp their ancestral territory.

“In recent weeks, we’ve seen how the government and the right have orchestrated an operation to punish Mapuche political prisoners in Angol prison, dispersing them to different jails and removing them from their communities and families.

” We understand that Mapuche resistance upsets the capitalists, who have their interests in Mapuche territory, and that’s why they need to strike at their morale in an attempt to subdue them.

“But we also know that they won’t succeed despite the state of emergency, the unprecedented militarization and the legislative agenda of the political class that has passed the law against timber theft and will soon enact the Ley de Usurpaciones, which aims to protect private property against land occupations [by lengthening the duration of sentences and making it easier to incarcerate illegal occupiers].

“In this context, we send our fraternal greetings to the people of the Mapuche nation, its political prisoners on hunger strike and its communities in resistance, and may they count on us for future conspiracies.”

******

And finally, it would have been a shame to not mention the official statement by Chile’s Attorney General, Ángel Valencia, interviewed on Tuesday June 20 on T13 Radio, in which he commented on the triple attack:

“Up to now, we have investigated incidents involving explosive devices located in urban areas. The fact that these were in rural areas presents us with an additional challenge in terms of evidence. In urban areas, we have surveillance cameras or Bip! cards [urban transport cards] and other electronic elements which help us to locate those responsible for the attacks. In the countryside, it’s much harder to find such clues. We’re talking here about attacks on critical infrastructure, and there’s no doubt that the situation is worrying.”

via: Sans nom Translated by Act for freedom now! « Previous Next »

NATO Hero Erdogan hosts Genocide in Syria – Over 70 murdered by Turkish drone strikes in 2023-

West and Russia ignore Turkey “carrying out deadly operations, and violating the civilians’ right to life, ..all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law“.

from thefreeonline July 12, 2023 by North press agency and thefreeonline

see also…Photo essay- Genocide Ignored: ‘Four Years of Turkish Occupation of Afrin’.. Women in Syria protest the murders of civilians and defense volunteers by Turkish attacks and invasions. .. see also.. Double Standards by US And Europe ignoring Turkey’s terrorist persecution Of Kurds is on Display In NATO

Turkish Drone Killings in 2023… Introduction:

After the Turkish invasion of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad in 2019 and the forced displacement of over 300,000 individuals, Turkey and the US announced on October 17, 2019, a ceasefire agreement followed by a Russian-Turkish agreement on October 22, under which the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdrew from the region.

People of Kobane bid farewell to 5 youths Murdered by Turkish drone 2022.. Drone killings are part of Erdogan’s Drone Marketing Program to sell drones worldwide

Subsequently, Turkey initiated drone strikes from within its own borders against northern Syria. In 2020, the first such attack targeted Syrian government forces in Idlib, followed by strikes on civilians in northeast Syria, where its first two victims were recorded in the city of Qamishli.

Turkey’s drone warfare began in 2020 but reached its peak in 2022 following Turkey’s desire to carry out a new invasion against north Syria which was met with rejection from the international community.

The number of drone strikes in 2022 reached 90 strikes that targeted the population, civilian objects, and infrastructure.

Although the total number of civilian casualties was relatively small compared to the number of military personnel from the Syrian government forces and the SDF, the drone strikes directly targeted civilians which resulted in deaths and injuries, including women and children.

These attacks have inflicted significant psychological, physical, and economic harm on the affected individuals and their families.

The dangerous and systematic Turkish violations of human rights in Syria, not abiding by and implementing its extraterritorial obligations, threatening the security and stability of north Syria, carrying out deadly operations, and violating the civilians’ right to life, are all a violation of the international human rights law and international humanitarian law and must be investigated and held accountable for.

Casualties of drone attacks

During the first half of 2023, Turkey attacked north Syria with 34 drone strikes, leaving behind 73 casualties, killing 44 individuals and injuring 29 others. The number of civilian victims constituted 27 percent of the total toll of victims.

Our department recorded 20 civilian casualties of these drone strikes. Among these, 12 were killed, including six women and a child, and eight were wounded, including a woman and three children.

The drone attacks also killed a Russian soldier and injured three others, and left behind 28 casualties among the SDF, including 20 dead and eight wounded. The government forces also suffered 17 casualties, including 10 dead and seven injured……………….

Read full detailed report HERE https://npasyria.com/en/100994/

Peru- No Justice for Juliaca Massacre as Coup Resistance Resumes / Our Reporter

from thefreeonline on 11th July 2023 Marc Gavaldà at AlertaAmazonica via La Directa – original HERE in Catalan)
Justice for 19 state killings never arrives in Juliaca

La Directa – Cooperative journalism for social transformation

Chronicle of the day of tribute to the victims of the revolt against the government of Dina Boluarte in Peru. The act is a preview of the mass mobilization that will take place on July 19 under the name “Tercera Toma de Lima”

The coffins traveled through the streets of Juliaca on Sunday, July 9, six months after the massacre | Oriol Tolrà

Juliaca is a commercial population of 260,000 Quechuas and Aymaras on the Peruvian plateau.

Last January 9, after a Christmas truce, the mobilizations were reactivated against the impeachment of President Pedro Castillo and against the government they consider “illegitimate” of Dina Boluarte, which, with the support of the elites and parties of the oligarchy took power and started an unprecedented repressive spiral.

Resumption of Anti-Boluarte Demos Announced

That day, in Juliaca, the protests that encircled the Manco Kapac airport were repressed by an indiscriminate police action, with live fire weapons that caused the death of seventeen people and hundreds of injuries.

Six months later, the relatives organized a vigil for the martyrs and demonstrated with coffins around the city.

They carry portraits of loved ones and a cardboard reproduction of coffins with name, age, profession of victims. photo: Oriol Tolrà

There is an atmosphere of tense calm pointing to the new national mobilization, called for July 19 under the slogan of the “Tercera Toma de Lima” THE THIRD OCCUPATION OF LIMA

Killers stand around as victims lie in the street

Fifty kilometers from Juliaca, Puno is the Aymara capital of Peru.

On the coastline of Lake Titicaca, after the massacre, the city led an unprecedented stoppage of activities that lasted four months. Peasant communities organized themselves in shifts by age and gender to maintain the roadblocks and the blockade of businesses.

Beyond the massacre of our brothers in Juliaca, the racism of the government was fought, which went so far as to state that “Puno is not Peru”.

Today there are not many traces of the mobilization, although there is an atmosphere of tense calm pointing to the new national mobilization, called for July 19 under the slogan of the “Third Takeover of Lima”.

The different communities, in extraordinary assemblies, are deciding these days to join the protest.

In this city we meet Max Nina, a young amateur journalist who traveled that sad January 9 to Juliaca.

His photos shot in the crossfire went around the world. Contrary to the official version that criminalized the demonstrators, the bodies of dying boys and girls were seen, transported on motorbikes to city squares turned into dispensaries, where they ended up bleeding to death in the face of the impotence of the population.

Many people suffered the impact of pellets in the back and stray bullets, even if they did not participate in the protests. Nina claims that she feared for her life, hearing the whistling of the projectiles against her skin.