from thefreeonline on 10 Feb 2023 by Obi-Y Kanochi and Leisa via libcom.org and anarchistnews.org translation: Michi

This article is written by an anarchist comrade “Obi-Y Kanochi”. Obi reflects on Myanmar’s revolution and the current situation. Besides, Obi interviewed one of the female rebels “Leisa” on the armed struggle and her insights on the ongoing revolution.

Myanmar: The Rebellion is built on Hope

It has been nearly two years since the Myanmar military seized state power through a coup. Despite their brutal oppression and cohesion over the entire population through various methods, people continue to resist their rule in various ways, ranging from CDM to arm struggles. Especially in the country’s central region and the rural area, where the military’s Russian-made jets and helicopters are bombing and their land forces are razing the villages into the ground.

The will of people who do not want to be governed by the military has forced the rural peasant militia to fight on indefinitely, much like the Phoenix may ever rise from the ashes.

However, the Myanmar Spring did not begin as an armed struggle in the early stages of the anti-coup. It began as a peaceful protest of factory workers and students, the Civil Disobedience Movement of government workers, and some urban youth movements like Block Boc style “Owning the Hood,” which blocked the district and built barricades and autonomy, and the “Non-Cooperation Movement,” which boycotted the military’s enterprise and products, such as taxation or an electric bill.

These spontaneous actions are not driven by a single command body or systemic resistance; to be more specific, they are not led by the electoral winning party NLD (National League for Democracy), CRPH (Committee Representative of Parliament), or its supporters, or by a social justice warrior of a specific activist. When a need arises, the society steps in, and various classes with different ideological backgrounds come together and support each other for the common goal.

We have seen what statisticians might have called utopian in the first six months of the coup.

Technically, both coup militaries failed to establish their rule, and the electoral winner didn’t have the chance to rule. Because of the CDM movement, the government’s healthcare and education services have been suspended, and brave volunteers have stepped forwards to fill the gap the society requires while it lasts. While the police were busy confronting the demonstration, vigilant volunteers formed a security team and patrolled day and night in their ward and district. Mutual aid is a natural response to the needs of a society where there is no crime and solidarity is strong; from street vendors to small shopkeepers, their contributions to society range from individual to mass and meet its needs. But such a realistic utopia of no government is destroyed by the overuse of force by the military and police.

The brutal crackdown, mass killings, and use of lethal weapons over unarmed protest have forced people to flee the city and fight back, and the revolution has dramatically changed into an arm struggle.

Today I had a chance to interview an old comrade who is currently active and involved in a local militia group, or LPD (Local People Defense). From this interview, we can reflect, rewind, and review the libertarian movement from one aspect through her personal view and experience of the revolution.

In his latest article Hersh describes the destruction of the North Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea by U.S. government forces, based on a tipoff by an unnamed CIA whistleblower. If proven it reveals a very grave Act of War by a terrorist USA against NATO ally Germany, Russia, and the whole EU. Due also to recent US outrages, like sanctioning half the world, blocking and seizing assets, breaking treaties and provoking Russia and China, it seems the 3rd and final World War has already begun.

from thefreeonline on 10th Feb 2023 by Moon of Alabama and BANNED News via The New Dark Age

Some Small Corrections To Seymour Hersh’s New Nord Stream Revelations

The destruction released an enormous amount of methane, a global warming gas. It destroyed Germany’s gas lifeline with Russia and thereby heavily damaged Germany’s industry. It was ecological and economic terrorism by the U.S. government targeted at an ‘ally’.

Seymour Hersh is a legendary investigative reported who has revealed dozens of crimes the U.S. government committed at home and abroad.

In his latest piece Hersh describes the destruction of the North Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea by U.S. government forces. The destruction released an enormous amount of methane, a global warming gas. It destroyed Germany’s gas lifeline with Russia and thereby heavily damaged Germany’s industry. It was ecological and economic terrorism by the U.S. government targeted at an ‘ally’.

The story his source is telling Hersh is largely the same one I had constructed from open sources on September 28, a day after the pipeline was blown up.

Whodunnit? – Facts Related to The Sabotage Attack On The Nord Stream Pipelines

Hersh’s story is true. That U.S. officials deny it means nothing. Previous revelations by Hersh on domestic spying by the CIA, on the My Lai massacre, on torture at Abu Ghraib, were also denied but eventually all were proven to be true.

The story about the pipelines makes complete sense. Unfortunately there are some details that Hersh, for lack of access to the right information, gets wrong.

He writes:

Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

It is unlikely that the explosives were put out while the yearly BALTOPS exercise was still ongoing. The current Wikipedia entry about it says:

A total of 14 NATO nations, including NATO partner nations Finland and Sweden, took part in the 51st BALTOPS exercise between 5 and 17 June 2022. The usual mine hunting exercise was augmented this year with experimental mine hunting unmanned underwater vehicles and the collection of environmental data sets for target recognition algorithms in conjunction with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific.

BALTOPS 2022 was shadowed by two Russian Karakurt-class corvette.

The whole exercise took only 12 days. A lot of nations took part. Submarines were involved. The Russian’s were around watching what was happening. (They like also had submarines in the wider area.)

Those are not good conditions to do a lot of secret underwater work.  It was much easier to do this later, when everyone had turned back to port. The U.S. ships though did not sail home. They stayed around, did some harbor visits and eventually settled down near the island of Bornholm a few miles away from the pipelines where they started to do their work.

Here is where the pipelines were hit:

The four Nord Stream pipelines, two for Nord Stream 1 and two for Nord Stream 2, are strong:

The steel pipe itself has a wall of 4.1 centimeters (1.6 inches), and it’s coated with another 6-11 cm of steel-reinforced concrete. Each section of the pipe weighs 11 tonnes, which goes to 24-25 tonnes after the concrete is applied.

The pipelines are also buried into the sandy sea ground, not deep, but deep enough to prevent fishing equipment or anchors from damaging them.

To blow such pipelines takes a lot more than just putting a few pounds of C4 explosives on top of them. The pipelines had first to be dug out, must likely with pressurized water.

Next explosives had to be placed all around them. Then a trigger mechanism of some kind had to be deployed and fixed on to them. Lastly the explosive laden section would have to be reburied to prevent detection or unforeseen entanglement with some external elements. All this had to be done at least four times.

If I had planned the operation I probably would have gone for a total of eight explosive packages.

The whole process takes time. Unmanned submarine like vehicles were needed to carry the hundreds of kilograms of explosives and equipment.

Diving time at that depth is not unlimited and there must have been a few crew changes. It probably took three to four weeks to fix the whole issue.

from thefreonline on 10th feb 2023 by IGD Worldwide syndicated from yeryuzupostasi.org.

On February 6th, anarchists from different cities issued a joint declaration on the aftermath of the earthquake. Here is their full statement as published on the social media account Sandıkta Çözülmez (Unsolvable at the Ballot Box)

Let’s build solidarity and the struggle against this order

On February 6, we were shaken by two earthquakes, one at 4:17 a.m. in Pazarcık district of Maraş with a magnitude of 7.7 and the other at 1:24 p.m. in Elbistan district of Maraş with a magnitude of 7.6. Even according to official statements, we are already facing a disaster in which thousands of people have lost their lives, thousands have been injured and hundreds of thousands of people have been directly affected.

Although earthquakes are natural events, what happens next is beyond an inevitable “natural” disaster.

First of all, it should be emphasized that the centralization, dense urbanization and metropolitanization caused by capitalism lie at the root of why earthquakes are so destructive.

However, this earthquake has once again revealed the consequences of capitalist development in Turkey in recent years being based on real estate, rent and plunder.

Despite warnings from scientists for years, despite the fact that it was known that there would be a major earthquake in that region in the near future and what should be done, the fact that nothing was done, and the continuation of uncontrolled and unplanned construction despite the so-called earthquake laws, invited this disaster. Hospitals, police stations and buildings even a few years old were destroyed, roads and bridges were rendered unusable.

The disaster was compounded by the “performance” of the state after the earthquake. Although the first day was very critical, the state did not use a significant part of its means. The much-vaunted massive militarist apparatus did not act when people’s lives were at stake; search and rescue teams and aid could not reach many places even after hours.

Setting the Record Straight; Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine

from thefreeonline Feb 9, 2023 by Mike Whitney at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace from Unz Review.

On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians. 

-‘In fact they had been shelling and bombing civilians in the breakaway ethnic Russian area for 8 years, killing 14,000 people and ignoring the Minsk peace process guaranteed by France and Germany.. But this 2022 intense bombardment and huge troop buildup was new. Both Merkel and Mitterand have recently confessed that the Minsk autonomy process was a fraud to gain time while NATO armed Ulraine to the teeth, now was the time, it seemed, to destroy Donbass’-.

Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place.

What the OSCE discovered was that the bombardment dramatically intensified as the week went on until it reached a peak on February 19, when a total of 2,026 artillery strikes were recorded.

 Keep in mind, the Ukrainian Army was, in fact, shelling civilian areas along the Line of Contact that were occupied by other Ukrainians.

We want to emphasize that the officials from the OSCE were operating in their professional capacity gathering first-hand evidence of shelling in the area. 

What their data shows is that Ukrainian Forces were bombing and killing their own people. This has all been documented and has not been challenged.

So, the question we must all ask ourselves is this: Is the bombardment and slaughter of one’s own people an ‘act of war’? Or an “Unprovoked Agression“?

“Black Days of Ukraine”. The war in Donbas in photos by Valery Melnikov ” E-Newe-news.su

Key New York Times media makes U-turn after saying Syria can’t receive aid due to sanctions. US’ Caesar Sanctions Act on Syria and Lebanon

from thefreeonline 9 Feb, 2023 Source: /UPROOTED PALESTINIANS/Al Mayadeen English

The New York Times goes in reverse and censors information about how sanctions on Syria blocking efforts to help people after the disastrous earthquake that hit it.

Screenshot showing the previous summary of the New York Times news article discussing the aid effort to Syria, February 7, 2023 (Social Media)

The New York Times quickly censored itself after saying in the summary of one of its new articles on the devastating earthquake that took place in Syria that the disaster-stricken state could not receive aid because of the sanctions imposed on it.

STOP Erdogan ‘Weaponizing’ Earthquake Aid against the Kurds in Syria and Turkey!

Two hours after it was published, the article said: “As the Syrian government tightly controls what aid it allows into opposition-held areas, border crossings with Turkey have been a lifeline.”

It previously said: “Syria is not able to receive direct aid from many countries because of sanctions, so the border crossing has been a lifeline.”

While aid is pouring into Turkey only a tricle has reached Syria by defying sacctions . After Syria requested provision of search and rescue teams on Wednesday some international agencies sent aid to the country, including shelter and medical support from the European Union, EU member states, and the United Nations, as well as an initial €3.5 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.

Earthquake Devastation—Unilateral Sanctions Against Syria Must End ...

The Syrian opposition of Turkish controlled mercenaries rejected all aid offered by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (SDF- AANES), North Press Agency reported.

An aid convoy consisting of six trucks will hopefullyt reach northwest Syria on Thursday, Reuters reported. This will be the first humanitarian aid that has reached the region which is under the control of Turkey and the Syrian opposition. The Turkish occupied Kurdish regions of Afrin and Azaz are close to the epicentre in Turkey, but receive little or no aid.

As another deep-cover police infiltrator is exposed in political groups in Barcelona, those targeted by operations by British secret police have issued this statement of solidarity

from thefreeonline on 8th February 2023 by Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance

Spanish and Catalan translations are below the English.

We read with horror the stories of the discovery of another police officer infiltrated in political movements in the Spanish state. Our hearts go out to the many who will be affected by this, especially the women tricked into being intimate with him.

A moment of the demonstration in the streets of the center of Barcelona by social entities against the infiltration of a policeman in the anarchist social movement 4th feb 2023

We note that this infiltrator was not the first and probably will not be the last to come to light, and there will undoubtedly be more tales of abuses of power to come. We would like to extend our solidarity to all those affected, in what we know is not, nor will it ever be, an easy moment.

Cover of issue 562 of Directa, 30 Jan-12 Feb 2023, which exposed the spycop

We wish we could say we’re surprised, but sadly we’re not. British police treated us with the same contempt for over 50 years of undercover policing, and we are only now learning the full scale of what they did. Such activities are never acceptable or justified, be it in the UK, Spain or anywhere in the world. We denounce all political surveillance as deeply undemocratic and an abuse of human rights.

We have been where you are now. We know the feelings of anger and sadness generated by the intrusion into your lives, and the sense of disempowerment and abuse to which it leads.

We also know that through solidarity among us we have managed to fight over the years. Nothing will undo the damage, but by standing our ground against the state, we’ve forced it back down, winning apologies, court rulings and compensation and, most importantly, credible information about its nefarious activities.

The police saw us as weak, they abused us without consequences, they invaded and damaged our lives and our political work for their ideological reasons. Instead, our politics, the reason we were attacked, brought us together and helped us emerge stronger as a collective, even when everything seemed darkest and when all our work seemed to have been for nothing.