Maria
Meza, a migrant woman from Honduras, runs away from tear gas with her
five-year-old twin daughters Saira and Cheili at the US-Mexico border on
November 25, 2018 [File: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon]
Last December, the Trump administration enacted a scheme requiring Central American asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their legal proceedings drag on indefinitely in the United States.
The Migrant Protection Protocols policy – a
handily perverse euphemism – is the approximate equivalent of calling
the Exxon Valdez oil spill the Marine Life Protection Initiative. As
various human rights and advocacy organisations have pointed out, the
border programme has exposed tens of thousands of asylum seekers to violence; including rape, kidnapping and assault, in the unsure border regions of Mexico.
In light of the surplus of rapes and other abuses already documented
as a result of so-called “protection”, the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence against Women – marked annually on November 25 –
is an ideal occasion to reflect on the violence facing migrant women in
an era of mass migration.
Pervasive violence
As the UN Women website observes : ” Rape
is rooted in a complex set of patriarchal beliefs, power, and control
that continue to create a social environment in which sexual violence is
pervasive and normalised.”
The feminist revolution in Rojava, N.Syria, shows how patriarchy can be defeated, even in a rural and strictly religious society. The revolution is now being destroyed by a Turkish invasion with a strongly patriarchal mentality. The Rojava kurds formed the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) in 2015 and welcomed dozens of Arab, Assyrian, yazidi, Christian..militias into a common front, spreading their revolutionary methods (eg in Manbij Council).Yazidi women victims have formed their own militia within SDF and recently the first arab women’s militia has been formed (July ’17). There are profound feminist implications in the context of previous extreme social repression.
For an idea of the extent of normalisation, just recall Patriarch-in-chief President Donald Trump‘s own previous advice about fondling women without their consent: “Grab ’em by the p****.”
Migrant women, of course, are particularly
vulnerable to “grabbing” – and much worse – especially given that crimes
against migrants are not generally reported or prosecuted. And for
Central American women transiting Mexico to the US border, sexual
assault is frequently par for the course.
On
2nd November a global day of resistance for Rojava brought thousands of
people out onto the streets in dozens of cities around the world.
For the people of Northern Syria, currently resisting an invasion by the Turkish army and its jihadist proxies, the joy and hope that these demonstrations brought is amongst the greatest gifts one could hope for. It reminds us that we are not alone against the Salafist hordes that the Turkish state is sending.
We salute all the actions and demonstrations happening in solidarity with Rojava and send our warmest greeting to those who are supporting the campaigns of #RiseUp4Rojava and #WomenDefendRjava. The resistance continues, as does the revolution, and today more than ever we need solidarity and support.
PLEASE HELP.. donate TO Kurdish Red Crescent / Heyva Sor A Kurd
On 2nd November a global day of resistance for Rojava brought thousands of people out onto the streets in dozens of cities around the world.
For the people of Northern Syria, currently resisting an invasion by the Turkish army and its jihadist proxies, the joy and hope that these demonstrations brought is amongst the greatest gifts one could hope for. It reminds us that we are not alone against the Salafist hordes that the Turkish state is sending. We salute all the actions and demonstrations happening in solidarity with Rojava and send our warmest greeting to those who are supporting the campaigns of #RiseUp4Rojava and #WomenDefendRjava. The resistance continues, as does the revolution, and today more than ever we need solidarity and support.
When you make a revolution against patriarchy, the nation-state and capitalism, of course you can’t rely on other states to support you. We use to say that the Kurds have ‘no friends but the mountains’, but on 2nd November we saw this was not true. The international solidarity that Rojava is witnessing is inspirational; it inspires us as internationalists in Rojava to remain steadfast on the barricades of this revolution and to commit to our many different works here, because we know that all our many struggles are entwined. Today the struggle is Rojava, tomorrow it could be anywhere else, and by defending Rojava we are defending not only the people and the revolution here, but also the hope that another world is possible.
Internationalism is an essential dimension in the history of revolutionary movements, and Rojava is today writing an important chapter. From the First International Association of Workers to the Tri-Continental Conference, from the 50,000 of the International Brigades who travelled to Spain to fight fascism in 1936, to the 500,000 Cuban revolutionaries who travelled to Africa to support decolonisation struggles, from the solidarity with the resistance in Vietnam to the antiglobalisation movements, from the revolutionary inter-communalism of the Black Panthers to the solidarity with Palestinian revolutionary resistance. Rojava is today heritage of this history of internationalism, and we are called to play our role in it.
Of course there are other important struggles happening all around the world. We see the uprisings in South America, with big mobilisations happening in Chile, the new ‘caracoles’ declared by the EZLN in Chiapas, and the resistance in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina. We see the Catalan people resisting against the attacks of the Spanish state. We see the massive uprisings happening in Middle East, such as in Lebanon or Iraq, in Sudan and Egypt, and other peoples in Africa looking for alternatives to the nation-state model that colonial powers imposed on them. We see the resistance movements of India, Philippines, Indonesia, and we stand with all revolutionaries who fight to bring all oppression to an end.
Internationalism in the twenty-first century has a lot of colours, but for sure the colour of the woman is the one that shines brightest. Patriarchy is the foundation upon which all social oppression is built, and the liberation from the mentality of dominant male must always be in the forefront of any revolutionary struggle. The defence of nature, so exploited and abused by the industrial system, has to be also in the first line, facing the ecological crisis that capitalism created. Democracy is our flag, but not the parliamentary democracy that Western powers tried to impose to the rest of the World. We raise the flag of the commune, the democracy of local councils and popular assemblies.
For all of this, we call to defend this revolution, and to make it a cradle for a global democratic modernity.
When you make a revolution against patriarchy, the nation-state and capitalism, of course you can’t rely on other states to support you. We use to say that the Kurds have ‘no friends but the mountains’, but on 2nd November we saw this was not true. The international solidarity that Rojava is witnessing is inspirational; it inspires us as internationalists in Rojava to remain steadfast on the barricades of this revolution and to commit to our many different works here, because we know that all our many struggles are entwined. Today the struggle is Rojava, tomorrow it could be anywhere else, and by defending Rojava we are defending not only the people and the revolution here, but also the hope that another world is possible.
Internationalism is an essential dimension in the history of revolutionary movements, and Rojava is today writing an important chapter. From the First International Association of Workers to the Tri-Continental Conference, from the 50,000 of the International Brigades who travelled to Spain to fight fascism in 1936, to the 500,000 Cuban revolutionaries who travelled to Africa to support decolonisation struggles, from the solidarity with the resistance in Vietnam to the antiglobalisation movements, from the revolutionary inter-communalism of the Black Panthers to the solidarity with Palestinian revolutionary resistance.
Rojava is today heritage of this history of internationalism, and we are called to play our role in it.
Of course there are other important struggles happening all around the world. We see the uprisings in South America, with big mobilisations happening in Chile, the new ‘caracoles’ declared by the EZLN in Chiapas, and the resistance in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina. We see the Catalan people resisting against the attacks of the Spanish state. We see the massive uprisings happening in Middle East, such as in Lebanon or Iraq, in Sudan and Egypt, and other peoples in Africa looking for alternatives to the nation-state model that colonial powers imposed on them. We see the resistance movements of India, Philippines, Indonesia, and we stand with all revolutionaries who fight to bring all oppression to an end.
Internationalism in the twenty-first century has a lot of colours, but for sure the colour of the woman is the one that shines brightest. Patriarchy is the foundation upon which all social oppression is built, and the liberation from the mentality of dominant male must always be in the forefront of any revolutionary struggle. The defence of nature, so exploited and abused by the industrial system, has to be also in the first line, facing the ecological crisis that capitalism created. Democracy is our flag, but not the parliamentary democracy that Western powers tried to impose to the rest of the World. We raise the flag of the commune, the democracy of local councils and popular assemblies.
For all of this, we call to defend this revolution, and to make it a cradle for a global democratic modernity.
Til Temir: Front line – A letter from an internationalist friend
Til Temir: Front line – A letter from an internationalist friend
A combatjet passes in low flight over the city of Til Temir, making
the windows of the houses vibrate, where Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians
coexist in this arid city located today few kilometers of the front.
When the blazing sound of the engine passes, the crying of a baby is the
first thing to break the silence. We did not feel any explosion, it
seems that this flight only wanted to frighten the population. Now heads
of neighbors pop out from the windows to see that everyone is good.
The people of #Afrin held a public meeting in #Shehba to discuss combatting violence against women, and resisting occupation. Soon people all over the world will be joining this discussion for #25November. Attacks do not stop us organising! #WomenDefendRojavapic.twitter.com/JBhUFdYqUZ
-Perhaps now that their soldiers have arrived, their planes are arriving as well.
-Surely it’s Russian, Russian planes have to fly lower than the others to see what happens!
-No, it must be American! Now that the Americans are leaving, so are their planes.
And they laugh. They laugh to scare the fear. The fear they have is
that the next plane won’t pass by, that it will drop one of the bombs
we’ve heard exploding on the outskirts of the city for days now. That’s
why nobody mentions that the plane in question is surely a Turkish F-16,
so as not to spread fear among the few people who are still left in
this neighborhood. Many neighbors marched days ago to Haseke, where a
couple of weeks ago they have started to build a new refugee camp to
receive people displaced by this new war. A new war that is confused
with the previous one.
Five years ago Til Temir experienced the war against the Islamic
state on the front line, especially the Christian villages nearby where
the Salafists showed their cruelest face, mutilating and decapitating
those who captured alive to the cry of “infidels” and “Allah is the
greatest”. They are the same cries that we hear today in the videos that
come from the front and that circulate between Facebook posts and
WhatsApp messages, where groups of armed men trained by the Turkish
state celebrate how the Kurdish politician Hevrîn Xelef, is executed or
how they capture the fighter of the YPJ Çiçek Kobane.
When we arrived in Til Temir in mid-October, seeking to open a
humanitarian corridor to the then besieged city of Serekaniye, Til
Temir’s seven schools were already filled with elderly people, mothers
and children fleeing Turkish bombs. Since then the front has continued
to inexorably approach the city, and more and more towns and villages
have to be evacuated. Yesterday the father of the host family, a teacher
in one of the schools that had to stop classes to accommodate refugees,
showed me a video of a small village from which a large column of smoke
was rising.
Footage from the latest protest, provided to @RojavaIC, shows stones and molotov cocktails striking a Turkish armoured vehicle, as local anger mounts against these joint patrols through previously peaceful countryside. pic.twitter.com/FBLclFKl10
“This is my village. It was bombarded by a Turkish plane. The hevals
(Kurdish word for “friends”, referring to the fighters of the YPG/YPJ)
have been alone defending the village for three days, everyone had to
flee because of the bombs.
A strange front
Following the withdrawal of United States troops in early October, the agreement between the Self-Administration of North-East Syria and the government forces of the Syrian State has created a strange situation. The regular forces of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) are deployed jointly with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to deal with the Turkish occupation.
For the first time in more than seven years, government soldiers have set foot in the territory where the Kurds, along with Assyrians, Arabs and other ethnic groups of northern Syria, have implemented the self-government project inspired by the ideas of Abdullah Öcalan, known as the proposal for democratic confederalism.
A little less than a week ago the first reinforcements of the SAA
arrived in Til Temir. We knew this because the morning they entered the
city, they spent about twenty minutes circling and firing into the air
waving the Syrian flag from old trucks, full of young and badly armed
soldiers, before heading for the front. They hoped that this flag would
protect them from Turkish mortars and fighter planes, but it did not.
From the Legerîn Ciya hospital (an internationalist doctor who came from
Argentina to Rojava and who died just over a year ago) we could see how
the same afternoon, the improvised operating theatres were filled with
Bashar Al-Assad soldiers wounded by the bombings and mortars of
Erdogan’s soldiers (and others of jihadists).
Yesterday we saw once again American helicopters flying over the city, which indicates that they were moving troops again. After announcing their withdrawal in early October, last week, Donald Trump explained that they were returning to Syria to “protect the oil”.
Neighbors explained to us that their convoy of armored vehicles was returning to Qamislo after pro-turk Islamists attacked them as they passed through Ain Issa in the direction of Kobane. In the military base they had there, today the Russian flag is flying, and a few days ago Russian soldiers have been patrolling together with the Turkish army along the border between the cities of Serekaniye and Amude. A few kilometres further, between Qamislo and Derik, it is American soldiers who patrol.
This morning SAA reinforcements arrived again, this time with old Russian tanks and a few mortars and other heavy weapons. They will need them. The day before yesterday, when we went to visit the front, we saw the conditions in which they were deployed in the different villages where the SDF still maintain the defense of the territory. After the withdrawal of the SDF from the city of Serekaniye on October 12, the front has moved to the semi-desert plains that separate the scarce 40 kilometers between Til Temir and Serekaniye, where the Islamists advance thanks to the air support of Turkish planes and combat drones.
In a war in these conditions, it is sometimes difficult to know who
is a friend and who is an enemy. At the front we are usually guided by
the premise that if he doesn’t shoot you, he is a friend. The great
hospitality of the Middle East, where everyone you meet greets you with
vocation and invites you to sit down and have tea, can lead you to live
strange situations. The most recent, looking for a translator to explain
to the captain of a team of SAA mortars that we did not want sugar in
the tea he offered us, while a group of soldiers unloaded the cannons
behind the SDF lines while they asked us, honestly surprised, how it is
possible that we could speak Kurdish and not Arabic.
Helin, Kendal, Baran, Şevger, Şahin… We'll never forget you.
With your strong spirit we will resist and defeat the Turkish fascist invasion.
Rojava’s revolution has inspired social movements all over the world,
highlighting without doubt the libertarian, feminist and ecological
character that Kurdish socialism promotes. Solidarity committees
translate, organize demonstrations and denounce the Turkish occupation
to different countries, coordinating with the extensive Kurdish diaspora
that has dispersed in recent decades because of repeated wars that have
threatened their survival. In the framework of the campaign
#RiseUp4Rojava, last Saturday, November 2, we saw more than a hundred
demonstrations in dozens of countries around the world.
We are also quite a few internationalists who are currently working
on the ground, especially in communication and health care, covering the
fronts that resist the invasion. We said that war sometimes creates
strange companies, and I think it is an adequate description when we see
the two main international teams that are currently assisting the
wounded on the front of Til Temir in coordination with Heyva Sor (the
Kurdish Red Crescent). On the one hand, a group of anarchists from
different countries who have coincided in Rojava and who have been
working for some time as a combat medical team. On the other hand, a
group of American and Burmese Christians who have been working for more
than two decades as combat medical teams in different conflicts.
In fact, one of the international martyrs that this Turkish offensive has claimed so far, belongs to this team. Yesterday one of the ambulances at the rear of the front was hit by a projectile that wounded two people and put an end to the life of a third. His name is Zao Sang, born Thailand, who lost his life shortly after the impact caused by the serious injuries.
Also the German Konstantin G. (Andok), fighter of the international brigade of the YPG, was killed by the Turkish bombs in a convoy headed to Serekaniye. And today we had to add a third name, which is that the commander of the international battalion for freedom Ozge Aydin (Ceren), a Turkish national, died from the wounds that led to her coma last week.
Their names lengthen the list of the hundreds of combatants and civilians who have been killed in this Turkish offensive.
#Turkey is using former #ISIS and Al-Qaeda members in #TFSA against the Kurds and NE #Syria, but nobody cares. The fight against terrorism is a big lie. The European Union and #US support Turkey, and Turkey support terrorism and islamic fundamentalism. This is a big theater… pic.twitter.com/kfIydPfwcX
To speak of death and war can easily frighten the western reader, accommodated in the first world where wars always take place away from home. The revolution of 1936, when tens of thousands of international brigadists came to support the war against fascism during the second Spanish Republic, is a long way off. A third of those who came could never return home again, but their actions meant an important chapter in the history of revolutionary internationalism.
Today in Rojava we are a handful of Catalans who are here, together with Castilians and Galicians. Also Basques, Aragonese, Andalusians and Portuguese have passed through here, inspired by the revolutionary project of Rojava, living and discussing the contradictions that this society generates, debating on how to develop an Iberian confederal project. Now that the situation in Catalonia calls into question the model of the Spanish nation-state, it is more than ever necessary to reflect together on what future we want to build.
SEE HERE Orso killed by ISIS.. But Lives Always in our HeartsSEE HERE
In fact, today we have published a global appeal together with other internationalists to come to support the resistance of Rojava, to understand and learn what it means to build (and defend) a revolution.
The number of internationalists who have come to put their grain of sand to Rojava is difficult to calculate, but it is far from the 50,000 brigadists who more than 80 years ago answered the call to confront fascism when we needed it most. No doubt this should make us reflect if we are really ready to carry out a revolutionary process or if it is just a romantic imaginary that we explain while we live our privileged lives. Revolution is not a road of roses, but no one has ever said it was easy. However, the alternative is to allow patriarchy and capitalism to continue to lead our lives, and for me and the many other comrades who are here, this is no longer an option.
101 East investigates how the illegal wildlife trade is wiping out rare species on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Monkeys, butterflies, bats, snakes and a dazzling assortment of birds – the forests on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are known as the ‘Galapagos of Asia’
…… But for how much longer?
Humanity’s impact is now endangering the survival of Sulawesi’s creatures, many of which are found nowhere else in the world.
“80 to 90 percent of the wildlife in Sulawesi is facing extinction. We are sleepwalking into ecological disaster,” says Billy, who works at the Tasikoki Wildlife Refuge.
”The extinction of the animals is part of climate and environmental breakdown caused by rampant exploitation for personal and corporate profit, imposed from outside by a kleptocratic State. Autonomous government of the islands would grant a stake to local people, along with strict environmental controls and suppression of plundering Corporations”.
Komodo dragons face extinction
A range of animals, from orangutans, sun bears and birds to crocodiles, can be found at the refuge. All of them have been taken from traffickers or people who kept them illegally as pets.
But Billy says the demand for “bushmeat” poses the biggest threat to animals.
“Mostly they are being caught from the wild, from the forest, for bushmeat … to be served on a plate as food,” he says.
Turkey’s latest threat: Give us safe zone or we send refugees to EU …Erdogan threatens: “… we will have to open the gates [to Europe].Either you support us or no one should feel sorry. We would like to host 1 million refugees in the safe zone.”
So Europe is being blackmailed to help this OPENLY fascist invader extend his empire in Syria and to wipe out the local Kurdish people an their democratic, non sectarian, anti racist, feminist revolution ..ETC..
In the last weeks the rate of refugees arriving in Greece has been shooting up, as Erdogan cynically allowed more people to escape, before cashing in on EU euros and political ignoring, if not actually aiding, his nazi invasion plans.
Aug 30 2019 Greece’s Lesvos receives largest single-day refugee arrival since 2015-2016 Some 547 migrants arrived Greece’s eastern Aegean island of Lesvos on Thursday in thirteen boats that set sail from the Turkish coast, marking the largest number of arrivals in a single day since the peak of a refugee crisis. Some 177 were men, 124 were women and 246 were children
So the craven EU politicians cave in and give him (indirectly) billions more public money for fear of losing their jobs and power to the racist right wing being fanned…
The European Commission on July 19 2019 adopted a new set of assistance measures worth €1.41 billion (nearly $1.6 billion), ensuring EU support to refugees and host communities in Turkey. This ups the total to over 6 billion euros. And this was before Erdogan’s latest human blackmail threats!
As well as receiving 6 billion euros to its economy (the cash goes directly to the refugees) there have been a long series of scandals alleging the slave labour exploitation in Turkey of defenseless Syrian refugee families who despite working could starve without the EU aid. (see here: Syrianrefugees: Abuse & exploitation in Turkey…650,000..)
The EU should spend the 6 billion euros of public money not on Turkish blackmailers but on helping refugees return and rebuild their lives in Syria.
This gives the Turkish business class a third big boost in cheaper production , increasing profits for the rich while forcing down wages for many other workers with the threat of cheaper refugee labour. Labour is cheap, refugeelabour is dirt cheap in Turkey
Refugees are being used again as Human Blackmail by Erdogan to extract money and impunity for Rojava invasion
From August 9 to 13, the First March of Indigenous Women of Brazil was carried out, with the slogan “Territory: our body, our spirit”. This march then joined the 6th country women’s March of the Margaridas, and the Tsunami of Education in defense of the education system. The Indigenous Women’s March joined the mobilization in Brasília
Maria Anecy Martins arrived in Brasília this week with glowing eyes to join the 2019 ‘Daisies’ (=Margaridas) March. The 45-year-old small farmer is one of the 100,000 peasant women who joined the 2-day event .
The sixth edition of the ‘Daisies’ March took place in Brasília on Aug. 13 and 14. The name of the event, originally Marcha das Margaridas, pays tribute to Margarida Maria Alves, a union leader in the northeastern state of Paraíba who fought for rural workers’ rights and was murdered by contract killers hired by big landowners in 1983.
Context: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were started in 2015 to expand the Rojava Revolution by inviting male and female militias of all races and religions to join in expanding and defending the struggle.
Turkey again makes daily threats to eliminate the70,000 strong force, financing and supplying ISIS remnants,as well asHTS Al Qaeda, Islamic militias andinfiltrating terrorist gangs, while Assad forces conspire with tribal leaders to foment resistance. The SDF still has ‘protection’ by none less than a small force of the USA military, for their own imperialist reasons, though Trump still plans to pull out.
Press reports suggest Erdogan may take advantage of the truce in the Turkish supplied Idlib war to invade Rojava (AA) on the pretext of creating a 32km ”safe zone” which would include the main Kurdish cities, in a dirty deal with the US.
In preparation for a planned Turkish military operation east of Euphrates, the media campaign to create Arab–Kurdish strife continues through creation of more fake videos
”Media fabrications by the Turkey-loyal [ie mercenary] groups continue spreading videos showing men dressed as members of the Syria Democratic Forces torturing and beating citizens, in order to create Arab–Kurdish strife in the east Euphrates area and northeast of Aleppo”.
”The latest of these is a video showing members dressed as SDF, speaking in Kurdish, and torturing an Arab family, who they beat, insult, and do immoral acts to. Also the video shows a car belonging to Asayish [SDF security] with SDF flag next to it, which was met with angry reactions on social media.
Originally published on Komun-Academy, Written by Hêlîn Asî, 2019
Around the world, currently, thousands of people, especially youth, protest and demand action against climate change. Under the slogan Fridays for future global strikes and mass demonstrations are taking place. In light of the statistics and prognoses about the causes and effects of climate change over the last few years, the climate question has become one of the most urgent questions of our time.
While on one side, individuals must bear responsibility, it is clear that it does not suffice to merely criticize individual lifestyles without challenging larger structural political and economic conditions. Analyzing climate change as independent from capitalism means depoliticizing the issue. In fact, nearly all conditions that have contributed to climate change can be traced back to the capitalist-consumerist system.
Call to resistance in Fraguas..en castellano abajo Sent by Gavroche on Mar, 06/18/2019
Fraguas.. NO Eviction NO Jail NO Demolition
Imminent danger of eviction, demolition and imprisonment of 6 people from the village of Fraguas. We can not allow it. We call for indefinite days of resistance in order to stop it. This can only be stopped if there is a massive influx of people willing to defend the project.
‘Half of Spain is de-populated to serve the capitalist consumer nightmare now destroying the planet. Now is time to defend Fraguas and re-occupy thousands of abandoned villages’.
There is no concrete date for the demolition but there are many preparations to be made and we need help. We intend to use techniques of peaceful resistance and disobedience. They want to destroy autonomy, community life, self-sufficiency, self-management, the rural world, its inhabitants and traditional culture.
-We believe and fight for the community, self-government, self-sufficiency and self-management. Since we arrived we were “invited” to abandon our dreams by environmental agents and civil guards with threats and fines, some of us carry thousands of euros in fines-.
They want to keep total control, civil society has to say ‘That’s enough’. With all humility we want to invoke the spirit of other struggles like those of Sasé, the ZAD, Hambach and many other stories of resistance that although they did not always conserve the space, served as seeds or inspiration for everyone.
They want to imprison 6 people for crimes that were committed by the Francoist government, usurping the houses and lands from their rightful owners and changing the territorial arrangement that had lasted for more than 5 centuries. Imprison them as real estate speculators, ironic when the corrupt and speculators are in the courts.
To all the people who have ever come, or if you have never come and want to see the land alive, it is time to come and defend it, if you wait it may be too late. Now or never. A big hug to all supporters.. Long live self-management.
Translate and disseminate this text .. and come to Fraguas!.
We write these lines from Fraguas, a squatted and rehabilitated village in the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara. the village, where 6 years ago there were were nothing but ruins, has been rebuilt through the work and enthusiasm of hundreds of people who have supported this self-managed project.
An assembly without hierarchies, with the principle of sustainability with the natural environment that surrounds it, learning day by day to sustain ourselves less and less attached to the capitalist system, caring for the earth and collecting its fruits, without harming it and learning to live in it, since from the moment we were born we were only taught to exploit it.
Practicing a collective existence and not falling into the competitive individualism that promotes the capitalist productive model. Rehabilitating with the materials that the earth gives us, the ruins that through the fraudulent expropriation at first left the Francoist state in 68, expelling forever its former inhabitants for a handful of pesetas and condemned them to a life of work salaried in most cases; and later the use as a military practice range that took place in the 90’s.
Right now a sentence dictates that “to restore balance” we must pay for the demolition of the reconstructions carried out and sentences 6 people to more than two years of prison . The Board of Castilla la Mancha (Podemos in coalition with the PSOE in the previous term and the PSOE with absolute majority since May 2019) conceals the atrocities carried out in the Franco regime. They intend to leave the town in ruins once more, expelling its inhabitants and leaving it in oblivion.
The State represses any attempt to attack or propose alternatives to its mercantilist dogma. Self-managed and horizontal projects such as this one, which escape their consumption logic, are in focus. In this logic of domination and control they attack Fraguas, just as they have attacked and will continue attacking any initiative that opposes them.
We can not allow them to achieve their objectives and simply crush us, we have to defend our liberated spaces. By supporting each other we have more strength and we will achieve it among all. With all humility we want to invoke the spirit of other struggles such as Sasé, the Zad, Hambach, Errekaleor and many other stories of resistance, which serve as seed or inspiration for all.
Currently there is no specific date of eviction but this could be imminent and we will not allow it. Concurring different types of strategies but with the firm conviction that here we are going to stay and continue to experience ways of living outside of authority and control.
We call for indefinite days of resistance in the village of Fraguas.
Living villages in struggle.
from Ekomedia Barcelona. translation TheFreeOnline
Llamamiento a la resistencia en Fraguas
Enviado por Gavroche en Mar, 18/06/2019 – 23:03
Fraguas Resiste
Peligro inminente de desalojo, demolicion y encarcelamiento de 6 personas del pueblo de Fraguas. No podemos permitirlo. Hacemos un llamamiento a las jornadas de resistencia indefinidas con el fin de paralo. Esto solo podrá pararse si hay una afluecia masiva de gente dispuesta a defender el proyecto.
No hay una fecha concreta para la demolición pero hay muchos preparativos que hacer y necesitamos ayuda. Pretendemos utilizar técnicas de resistencia pacifica y desobediencia. Quieren destruir la autonomía, la vida en comunidad, la autosuficiencia, la autogestión, el mundo rural, a sus habitantes y la cultura tradicional.
«60% of the Spanish municipalities have less than 1,000 inhabitants, they occupy 40% of the surface, but hardly have 3% of the population».
Quieren manejar todo a sus anchas, la sociedad civil tiene que decir basta. Con toda la humildad queremos invocar el espíritu de otras luchas como las de Sasé, las Zad, Hambach y otras muchas historias de resistencia que aunque no siempre conservaron el espacio sirven de semilla o inspiración para todxs.
Quieren encarcelar a 6 personas por delitos que fue el gobierno Franquista quien los cometió, usurpando las casas y tierras a su legítimos dueños y cambiando la ordenación territorial que tuvo durante más de 5 siglos. Encarcelarles como especuladores inmobiliarios, irónico cuando corruptos y especuladores están en las cortes.
A todas las personas que habeis venido alguna vez, o si no habeis venido nunca y quereis verlo vivo es el momento de venir a defenderlo, si esperas quizás sea demasiado tarde. Ahora o nunca. Un abrazo a toda la peña viva la autogestion.
Aún no hay fecha, pero los repobladores de Fraguas temen que no queden muchos días hasta que lleguen las máquinas que demolerán las casas reconstruidas de este pueblo de Guadalajara. Por ello, han hecho un llamamiento para defender este pueblo recuperado.
“Parece que va a ser prácticamente ya”, señala a El Salto Lalo Aracil, uno de los repobladores de Fraguas condenados por reconstruir este pueblo. “Están haciendo cortafuegos alrededor del pueblo, cuando no es fecha para ello, y también vino la Guardia Civil con peritos y estuvieron viendo las casas, incluso las que estaban fuera de la sentencia”, continúa. “Nos van a notificar dentro de nada, cuando ellos quieran. Y no sabemos qué plazo nos dará la notificación, algunos nos dicen que seguramente nos darán 24 horas, para que no estemos preparados”.
Ante una demolición que se prevé inminente, los pobladores de Fraguas han pedido apoyo a diversos colectivos, “para ver estrategias de defensa claras”, apunta Aracil. “Queremos que venga gente todo el rato, el llamamiento es continuo, para hacer unas jornadas indefinidas de resistencia, que se reúna masa de gente suficiente para poder detener a la policía”, continúa.
Por lo pronto, ya son entre 60 y 70 las personas que han acudido a acampar o a proteger las construcciones de Fraguas. También cuenta con el apoyo de otros pueblos recuperados de Pirineos y Navarra, desde donde se van a fletar camiones con materiales. Y de El Calabacino, otro pueblo neorrural de Huelva.
“Están intentando hacer grupos de permanencia de colectivos rurales para tener aquí un grupo de gente que se mantenga de forma fija, poder hacer cuadrantes y mantener a un mínimo de personas de continuo que aguantes hasta que se dé una alerta y dé tiempo a que gente de otros puntos del Estado pueda venir a ayudarnos también”, señala Aracil. La convocatoria ha ido más allá de España, contestando también gente del ZAD y del bosque de Hambach.
Condenados a pagar la demolición
Han pasado ya cerca de seis años desde que una docena de jóvenes decidieron ir a Fraguas, un pueblo que dejó de existir cuando, en los años 60, Franco ordenó su demolición para replantar pinos. Después se convirtió en zona de prácticas militares. Desde ese año 2013, los repobladores de Fraguas reconstruyeron tres de las casas del pueblo.
Todo fue bien hasta que la Consejería de Ordenación de Territorio, Urbanismo y Medio Ambiente les denunció por delitos contra el territorio y usurpación. En junio del año, seis de los repobladores de Fraguas pasado fueron condenados por el Juzgado de lo Penal número 1 de Guadalajara.
En enero, la Audiencia Provincial confirmó la condena de un año y nueve meses de cárcel para cada uno de ellos, además del pago de multas que suman los 16.380 euros y, también al pago de la demolición, cuyo coste, en la primera tasación, ascendía a 26.600 euros.
“La condena quedó en que, si no pagábamos la demolición, entrábamos a la cárcel dos años y tres meses, recurrimos al [Tribunal] Constitucional, porque consideramos que nuestros derechos de defensa habían sido vulnerados, y rechazaron el recurso porque dicen que no tenían relevancia constitucional suficiente”, explica Aracil.
Aunque sí se plantean pagar los 16.000 euros de multa, Aracil confirma que no tienen ninguna intención de pagar la demolición: “No tenemos dinero, y es que no creemos que haya que demoler el pueblo por segunda vez, solo hemos reparado unas casas que ya estaban aquí”.
En los próximos días señalan que se hará una segunda tasación de la demolición de Fraguas, y, con la nueva suma, tienen previsto acudir al juzgado para pedir una moratoria de la ejecución de la condena por cinco años. También siguen a la espera de la contestación de un recurso que presentaron para suspender las penas de prisión, y de una reunión con la Consejería de Ordenación de Territorio.
“Llevan dándonos largas desde abril”. En ese mes, desde la Consejería les dijeron que si conseguían crear un marco legal al proyecto de Fraguas, la institución castellano-manchega lo firmaría. “Ayer fuimos al registro para pedir una reunión de máxima urgencia, pero todavía no nos han contestado”, concluye Aracil.
Escribimos estas líneas desde Fraguas, un pueblo okupado y rehabilitado en la Sierra Norte de Guadalajara. Pueblo que hace 6 años no eran más que ruinas y que mediante el trabajo y la ilusión de cientos de personas que han apoyado este proyecto autogestionado, asambleario sin jerarquías, con el principio de sustentabilidad con el medio natural que lo rodea, aprendiendo día a día a sostenernos cada vez menos atadxs al sistema capitalista, cuidando la tierra y recogiendo sus frutos, sin dañarla y aprendiendo a vivir en ella, ya que desde que nacimos sólo fuimos enseñadxs a explotarla. Practicando una existencia coleciva y no cayendo en el individualismo competitivo que promueve el modelo productivo capitalista. Rehabilitando con los materiales que nos da la tierra, las ruinas que mediante la expropiación fraudulenta en un primer momento dejó el estado franquista en el 68, expulsando para siempre a sus antiguos habitantes por un puñado de pesetas y para ser condenadxs a una vida de trabajo asalariado en la mayoría de los casos; y más tarde las prácticas militares que se llevaron a cabo en los 90.
Ahora mismo una sentencia dicta que “para restablecer el equilibrio” debemos pagar la demolición de las reconstrucciones realizadas y condena a más de dos años de prisión a 6 personas. La Junta de Castilla la Mancha (Podemos en coalición con el PSOE en la anterior legislatura y el PSOE con mayoría absoluta desde mayo) encubre así las atrocidades realizadas en el franquismo. Pretenden dejar en ruinas el pueblo una vez más, expulsando a sus habitantes y dejándolo en el olvido.
El Estado reprime cualquier intento de atacar o plantear alternativas a su dogma mercantilista. Proyectos autogestionarios y horizontales como este, que escapan a su lógica de consumo, están en su punto de mira. En esta lógica de dominio y control atacan Fraguas, al igual que han atacado y seguirán atacando cualquier iniciativa que se les oponga.
No podemos permitir que logren sus objetivos y nos aplasten sin más, tenemos que defender nuestros espacios liberados. Apoyándonos entre todxs tenemos más fuerza y entre todxs lo conseguiremos. Con toda la humildad queremos invocar el espíritu de otras luchas como las de Sasé, las Zad, Hambach, Errekaleor y otras muchas historias de resistencia, que sirven de semilla o inspiración para todxs.
Actualmente no hay una fecha concreta de desalojo pero este podría ser inminente y no lo vamos a permitir. Confluyendo distintos tipos de estrategias pero con la firme convicción de que aquí nos vamos a quedar y continuar experimentando formas de vivir al margen de la autoridad y el control.
Convocamos unas jornadas indefinidas de resistencia en el pueblo de Fraguas.
The water protectors attached themselves with lock boxes to machinery in a non violent direct action that stopped construction of power lines being built for Line 3. While the lockdown was occurring, @ResistLine3, a twitter account that describes itself as, “Direct action to stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. #StopLine3″,shared copies of the permit applications of the construction project shut down by the water protectors direct action.
Resist Line 3@ResistLine3
Application for permit from Great River Energy to build a transition line to power @Enbridge Line 3 pump station. Work on this site has been shut down for over 4 hours! #StopLine3
See Resist Line 3’s other Tweets
The language in the permits states that the the power lines are for Enbridge’s proposed project that’s part of a replacement project.
“115 kilovolt transmission line that is needed to provide electric power to a new petroleum pump station being proposed by Enbridge Energy. The Enbridge pump station is part of a pipeline replacement project.“
That proposed pump-station is intended to be attached to the new tar sands Line 3 pipeline that as of Monday morning is no longer approved in Minnesota.
While water protectors took action to shut down Line 3 construction, the paper war continued in the state as the Minnesota Court of Appeals agreed with a coalition of tribes, indigenous rights groups and environmental groups with an opinion which stated,
“We agree that the FEIS [Final Environmental Impact Statement] is inadequate because it does not address the potential impact of an oil spill into the Lake Superior watershed. Accordingly, we reverse the commission’s adequacy determination and remand for further proceedings consistent with this decision.“
Enbridge stated their disappointment in a post on their website but also pointed out that the court had sided with them on eight of the nine disputes. Enbridge ended their response post by saying,
“We are in the process of a detailed analysis of the court’s decision and will consult with the MPUC and other state agencies about next steps.“
The courts decision wouldn’t have stopped the construction the three water protectors took direct action to stop.
A press release from the Ginew collective which describes itself as a, “a grassroots, frontlines effort led by indigenous women to protect Anishinaabe territory from the destruction of Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands project,” gave statements on why the three water protectors took action.
Frances Weatherall stated,
“Enbridge pretends to follow the process while it is busy bulldozing through our forests and wetlands,”
Frances’ sister, Mollie Weatherall, locked to same machine said,
“This is a years-long plan to send more dirty tar sands through Minnesota, don’t be fooled into thinking they won’t destroy as much as they can while they wait for their final state permits,”
Jonas, the third person who took direct action stated,
“This is a step towards decolonization, Enbridge is carving up the planet and our government doesn’t care. Today it’s my turn to put my body between the planet I want to protect and the attacks against our water, our climate, and Native sovereignty.”
The water protectors who shut down the construction site prepping ground were arrested and released from jail June 4, 2019. A bail fund was organized to support the water protectors with legal fees.
They’re free!! These are the three water protectors who stood up for the planet yesterday by locking themselves to machinery to stop its operation in building line 3. We are so thankful that they are out of jail and back with their friends and comrades. However they still will have legal and court costs in the coming weeks. Please donate to their legal support fund here paypal.me/nfldal3 .
The Ginew collective’s statement also pointed out that this ongoing construction continues despite Enbridge not having water crossing permits,
“Minnesota has not issued the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) or DNR permits required for Line 3 construction across wetlands or water crossings. Minnesota announced the 401 water quality certification process will not be complete until fall 2019.“
These actions and decisions are just the latest in a ongoing resistance in Minnesota against Enbridge’s tar sands oil project. This latest direct action, comes on the heels of years of multifaceted resistance in court rooms and in the forests of Minnesota to #StopLine3.
![Maria Meza, a migrant woman from Honduras, runs away from tear gas with her five-year-old twin daughters Saira and Cheili at the US-Mexico border on November 25, 2018 [File: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/11/25/16a247b20d24445182983ac12bc41b1b_18.jpg "Smash the patriarchy to save the planet")
Fraguas Resiste
The Free 