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Activists have broken into the five-story Amsterdam home of sanctioned Russian technology tycoon Arkady Volozh and say they plan to use it as a temporary shelter for students and other young individuals.
Two new squats in Amsterdam in a week and a half: Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302 and Vossiusstraat 16.
Twee nieuwe kraakpanden in Amsterdam in anderhalve week: Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302 en Vossiusstraat 16. pic.twitter.com/RrmziJSGXK
Since October 2021 anarchist Toby Shone has been held in prison, often in conditions reserved for terrorists.Toby is due for release in December, but his troubles will be far from over..
On Sunday evening, a group gathered in the city centre to show solidarity with Toby and to raise awareness of his story with a march through the streets dressed in Halloween costumes.
The Monster March was organised by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a union organising across all industries, students, the unemployed and prisoners.
Bristol branch secretary, Seb, said: ‘When the state comes and tries to persecute prisoners like Toby Shone, or when the government puts down attacks on the union movement…when they come after any of the members of the working class we do what we can in solidarity with them, and to build strong community sand connections and to make their struggle our struggle.’
He continued: ‘The scariest thing for the state is when people come together, they show solidarity. They show solidarity across differences. When people stand together. When people fight for each other’s rights, fight for something better, and we begin to collectivise our struggles.
‘That’s why tonight is a Monster March. Because that’s what we’re here to do, to scare the system.’
In November 2020 Toby was arrested from his home in the Forest of Dean as part of international policing effort Operation Adream. Accused of running 325.nostate.net, a website publishing details of direct actions, Toby was charged under the Terrorism Act and the website was taken down.
At trial in October 2021 the prosecution offered no evidence to the terrorism charge and a not guilty verdict was subsequently recorded. Toby was however sentenced for three years and nine months on drug offences, spending time at HMP Horfield in Bristol before being moved to HMP Parc in Bridgend.
Notwithstanding the not guilty verdict, counter-terrorism police applied for a serious crime prevention order (SCPO), a measure usually reserved for those convicted of trafficking or firearms offences, or serious fraud.
During his prison time, supporters say Toby has been held in solitary confinement, treatment again usually reserved for those convicted of far more serious crimes.
Upon release he will have to attend mandatory psychiatric treatment, which supporters say is a consequence of his refusal to give up his anarchist beliefs. His probation team allegedly contains members of counter-terrorism police.
Toby’s supporters see his treatment as the thin end of a wedge being pushed by the government to shut down any criticism of present systems, especially capitalism, and to repress alternative lifestyles.
In an interview Toby gave to The Canary last May, he said: ‘The implications of this case do not only concern anarchists, who have been under the microscope for some time, but anyone who is living in alternative way with their ideas or their actions, collective or not.
‘Anyone who essentially wants to see actual social, political or environmental change will at some point put that into practice. And the state has prepared prisons for you.’
Supporters can write to Toby at the following address: Toby Shone A7645EP, HM Prison Parc, Heol Hobcyn John, Coity, Bridgend CF35 6AP.
Feature image: Kamui Oshino.
Did you go this protest? What did you think? Let us know in the comments or at thebristolactivist@protonmail.com.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has not totally conceded the election he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and has encouraged highway protest blockades at over 500 points. Bolsonaro subsidised truckers and far right police and army supporters and has hinted at a military coup to stop Lula from taking office.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro declines to concede, fomenting chaos, but ‘OKs transition process’
By DIANE JEANTET and CARLA BRIDI at A.P/ abcnews. Nov 2, 2022, via thefreeonline shared with thanks
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday stopped short of conceding the election to leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, instead using his first public comments since his defeat two days ago to thank his supporters and encourage their protests, as long as they ‘remain peaceful’.
Truckers supportive of President Jair Bolsonaro block a highway to protest his run-off election loss to former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Embu das Artes on the outskirts of Sao Pa…
Flanked by more than a dozen ministers and allies as he delivered his short speech at the presidential residence, the fiery leader did not mention the election results, however. Instead, he defended his tenure.
Bolsonaro also thanked the 58 million people who voted for him and said he supports ongoing protests by truckers who have erected nationwide roadblocks, as long as they don’t become violent.
“Current popular movements are the result of indignation and a feeling of injustice regarding how the electoral process occurred,” he said.
The president’s statement amounted to a “two-fold move,” said Thomas Traumann, an independent political analyst.
“He didn’t recognize his defeat, and sustains the suspense,” Traumann said. “But as he wants to continue to dominate, to be the leader, he maintains the possibility of peaceful demonstrations.”
Road blockades erected across Brazil by Bolsonaro supporters who seek to refute the results of the election. Photo: ARede Originally published in People’s Dispatch Supporters of outgoing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro set up over 300 road blockades on October 31. The far-right leader has isolated himself since Sunday and has remained completely silent since his […]
Western government & the Western media have deliberately lied about China operating a central «social credit score» system driven by political and ideological criteria. However the same Western sources admit upon further examination that this is a myth, that no such system exists, and the multitude of systems China does use are for tracking and […]
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wants answers regarding the mysterious “It’s done” iPhone message allegedly sent by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss to the US secretary of state moments after the sabotage attacks against the Nord Stream network in late September.
“To be honest, I don’t care who got this information and how. I’m interested in London’s answer to the following question: Did Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain send a message to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately after the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up with the words ‘It’s done’?” Zakharova asked in a Telegram post Tuesday.
The spokeswoman suggested that “millions of people around the world” were waiting for answers to the question of how the planet’s energy security was undermined, “and what role the Anglo-Saxons played in this terrorist attack.”
On Monday, a US defense and national security news outlet reported that among the information suspected to have been leaked from Truss’s “hacked cell phone” was the aforementioned text message between the now former UK leader and the US top diplomat.
Internet entrepreneur and free speech activist Kim Dotcom mentioned the “It’s Done” message in a Twitter thread Sunday, shortly after British media ran a piece on Truss’s hacked phone.
“iCloud admin access rocks,” sarcastically Dotcom wrote, referring to the Apple service allowing for iPhone text messages, files, photos and other information to be saved ‘to the cloud’ and accessed by authorized computers (thus making user files vulnerable to hacking).
How do the Russians know that the UK blew up the North Stream pipelines in partnership with the US?
Because @trussliz used her iPhone to send a message to @SecBlinken saying “It’s done” a minute after the pipeline blew up and before anybody else knew?
“It’s not just the Five Eyes that have backdoor admin access to all Big Tech databases,” Dotcom added, referencing the intelligence alliance of Anglosphere nations including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. “Russia and China have sophisticated cyber units too.”
“The funny thing is Govt officials with top security clearance still prefer using iPhones over their NSA & GCHQ issued encrypted shit-phones,” Dotcom wrote.
Sabotage attacks against the Nord Stream network knocked out three of the four strings on September 26. Western officials and media immediately began singing in unison that Russia blew up its own $20 billion pipeline infrastructure for reasons unknown.
The Kremlin accused the West of an “unprecedented act of state terrorism” involving Nord Stream, but did not name any specific states, with President Vladimir Putin only hinting involvement by the “Anglo-Saxons” (typically a reference to Brits and Americans in Russian usage).
After a month-long investigation, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed Saturday that Britain’s Royal Navy took part in the planning, organization and carrying out of the Nord Stream attack.
Liz Truss ‘hack’ raises fears of security vulnerabilities
The damage to the Nord Stream network has robbed Central and Western Europe of a major traditional source of natural gas ahead of the winter heating season. Yamal-Europe and Soyuz, two major Russian overland pipelines delivering natural gas to Europe, have also been halted, or experienced a major drop in usage, sparking questions about the region’s energy security.
Late last month, French President Emmanuel Macron complained that Paris’s American allies had jacked up the price on natural gas deliveries to Europe, and that Europeans were being made to pay “3-4 times” more than Americans for the same gas. “That is unfair. These are double standards,” Macroncomplained..
Putin in fact did nail where we are: on the edge of a Revolution.
“the situation is, to a certain extent, revolutionary” as “the upper classes cannot, and the lower classes do not want to live like this anymore”. So everything is in play, as “the future of the new world order is being shaped before our eyes.”
“The Nazis burned books. Now the Western fathers of ‘liberalism’ are banning Dostoevsky.”
“The unipolar world is coming to an end. The West is incapable of single-handedly ruling the world. The world stands at a historical milestone ahead of the most dangerous and important decade since World War II.”
In an all-encompassing address to the plenary session of the 19th annual meeting of the Valdai Club, President Putin delivered no less than a devastating, multi-layered critique of unipolarity.
From Shakespeare to the assassination of Gen Soleimani;
from musings on spirituality to the structure of the UN;
from Eurasia as the cradle of human civilization to the interconnection of BRI, SCO and the INSTC;
from nuclear dangers to that peripheral peninsula of Eurasia “blinded by the idea that Europeans are better than others”, the address painted a Brueghel-esque canvas of the “historical milestone” facing us, in the middle of “the most dangerous decade since the end of WWII.”
Putin even ventured that, in the words of the classics, “the situation is, to a certain extent, revolutionary” as “the upper classes cannot, and the lower classes do not want to live like this anymore”. So everything is in play, as “the future of the new world order is being shaped before our eyes.”
