Every year, between Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, the international community and women’s rights groups organise 16 days of activism against gender violence. Continue reading “Femicides in Brazil Hit Civil War Proportions”
Below I reproduce an unattributed translation from the French anarchist publication, Le Monde Libertaire, of an interview with the Tunisian anarchist feminist group, Feminism Attack! I follow that with an earlier report about the Tunisian feminist activist, Amina Sboui, leaving the Femen group and declaring herself an anarchist. Femen is a radical feminist group founded in Ukraine which has captured some media attention through its topless protests where Femen activists paint various political slogans across their chests.
Continue reading “Amina with Feminism Attack: Anarcha-Feminism in Tunisia”
“Capitalism Must Die!” ebook now available!
Free or Donation (you can ‘Buy’ it for 0.00 )
I finally finished the ebook version of “Capitalism Must Die!”
Feel free to download it and share it with others. I want it to be widely distributed and contribute to the fight against capitalism, so I’ve made it “pay anything or nothing” and used a Creative Commons license. I hope it is useful. We really need to bring the system down, or all could soon be lost.
Continue reading “‘Capitalism Must Die!’ free or donation ebook: Stephanie McMillan”
Escrache feminista: 1000′s se movilizó contra la prohibición del aborto
Elvira, the Street Brigade and the Sex-work Network
Blessed be our struggle… Feminism that Sins (thefreeonline.wordpress.com)
Spanish government prepares new abortion law (kansascity.com)
http://www.feminicidio.net/noticias-de-asesinatos-de-mujeres……
victory! Tunisia frees Femen activists: Now Free AMINA! (thefreeonline.wordpress.com)
Feminist Protests go Worldwide: Free Amina..Free all Women!
Attention Men: If You Attack a Woman
Houston, is my Vagina a Problem for you?
Womens ‘Red Brigades’ confronts India sex abuse
1. When police in a “democratic” country kill a citizen
2. Anonymous leaks documents proving that catalan govt. is spying activists
3.La flor de Maig (1896-2013): 117 years of resistence under threat of eviction
1. WHEN POLICE IN A “DEMOCRATIC” COUNTRY KILL CITIZENS
Thursday 14th Nov saw pickets and a 1000 strong march against police violence in Barcelona, joining the spot where JuanAndrés was killed and where Ester Quintana lost her eye. Also in the Nou Barris area crowds of people have twice prevented the Catalaan police making arrests amid cries of ‘Murderers’.
On October 5 two residents of Raval, Barcelona’s popular downtown neighborhood had an argument which ended up in a fight. Once it was all over, several mossos d’esquadra (the infamous Catalan police) arrived and one of them – Juan Andrés Benitez – refused to show his ID. They cornered him and pushed him to the floor, brutally beating him, ignoring his shouts of pain. Passers-by and neighbours trying to stop them or even shouting at the police were forced to leave by cops branding batons Juan Andrés died the following day.
The autopsy revealed that he had died due to multiple traumas in the cranium-facial area. Furthermore, the forensic examination showed that his teeth, cheekbone, nose and eyebrows bones were broken. He had suffered injuries to his lips, bruises to his head and to the top-right part of his face as well as a fracture on the right metacarpal. He also had injuries in his arms, legs, knees and lower back.
Juan Andrés was the owner of two shops in the Eixample neighboorhod and one of the founders of the Associació catalana d’empreses per a gais i lesbianes (Catalan association of enterprises for gays and lesbians), which had made him a well known among Eixample neighbours.
Not only his friends, relatives and neighbours claimed for justice. The reaction extended to all astonished and outraged citizens of Barcelona and social activists such as Rereguarda (NL#18, 1) who demanded Juan Andres’ killers to be punished. A website was created immediately in order to spread this news and to look for witnesses and evidence which would prove that it wasn’ t just an assasination but also a serious attempt against the rights and safety of individuals within the Spanish democracy.
Despite the police’s attempt to get rid of witnesses and photos, videos that neigbours h
ad shot form their balconies came out as a clear proof. Even after everyone had seen how up to 11 mossos had beaten Juan Andrés, the mossos kept declaring that Juan Andrés had died of some random cause, unrelated to the police´s intervention. The Catalan councillor responsible for the police Ramon Espadaler, and the Mosso’s Director Manel Prat systematically denied any ill doing by these policemen and questioned the results of the Spanish National Police force’s investigation of this subject. Finally, 8 policemen were charged with crime against life, moral and physical integrity, coercion and obstruction to justice, and are called to testify on November 13th. These mossos have been suspended temporally from duty.
The Raval neighborhood is well-known in Barcelona for its police violence in the streets.This situation is constantly denounced by residents, immigrants, gay and lesbian communities and prostitutes (NL#10, 1 ). Raval is now – following this scandalous incident – more active than ever with increasing numbers of demonstrations, protests, assemblies and public talks, including an escrache protest under the motto : el barri parla, tu callas (the neighborhood talks, you keep silent in Catalan) (NL#42, 2 ) accusing and holding the councilor for Raval, Mercè Homs, accountable for Juan Andrés´ death.
Meanwhile, though citizens and certain political parties are demanding the dismissal or resignment of both Espadaler and Prat for not treating this death with the seriousness required, they are both protected by the ruling party and changes in the police modelin Catalonia seem hard to achieve.
LINKS
Articles
Investigation opened after man dies in custody of Catalan police force [EN]
Videos capture violent arrest that ended in death of suspect [EN]
Police brutality video angers Barcelona [EN]
The judge sees homicide in the death of the business owner restrained by the mossos [SP]
Witnesses say that the mossos beat the Raval’s neighbour without having been attacked [SP]
Eight cops have been charged for the death at Raval [SP]
Department of Internal Affairs suspends the eight mossos charged for the “Raval Case” [SP]
Video & Pictures
Catalan Police kills a man for no reason in Barcelona [EN]
Raval death (summary of what happened that night by @15mbcn_tv) [CAT]
Mossos hit Juan Andrés until death – video proof
Demo at Raval #RavalDiuProu (Raval say: enough!) – Streaming by @okokitsme
#EscracheHoms video
#EscracheHoms photogallery by @fotomovimiento
Twitter HT
#MossosAssasins #ProuImpunitat #ElRavalDiuProu #JusticiaJuanAndres #MortXMossos #RespostesEspadaler
2. ANONYMOUS LEAKS DOCUMENTS PROVING THAT CATALAN GOVT. IS SPYING ACTIVISTS
On October 28, Anonymous leaked documents proving that the Centre de Seguretat de la Informació de Catalunya (Cesicat) (Center of information and security of Catalunya), an agency that depends on the Generalitat (Catalan Government) and protects “computer security”, was monitoring the twitter activity of activists linked to Catalan social movements. On October 31st more documents were leaked, showing more dangerous tracking activities.
On the first leak no hidden or secret activities are reported on documents. What was shown in them were just simple and poor statistical reports based on the influence of many activists´ twitter accounts of activists and their tweets during specific actions, such as the protest camp in front of Bank La Caixa (NL#21, 3 ), the occupations of Universities, the first anniversary of the 15-M (NL#45, 1 ) etc,. Also, videos and pictures of some significant tweets, the most used hashtags and the name of the first user were reoported.
The second leak of docs added assignments for Cesicat to investigate specific profiles and ideologies. Complete reports on specific activists were listed as pending tasks, identification of activists using collective accounts was ongoing and there was a 7-page report on photojournalist and activist Jordi Borras (@jordiborras) including home address, phone and camera models he uses. This last leak was specially worrying as he is being chasen and threatened by Spanish neonazis due to his photos of their concentrations, and there were versions shared without covering up this vital info.
Since the leaking of the information, a big wave of protest raised throughout activists in the social networks. A few hours after the leak, a parody twitter account created as people were calling the Cesicat ”the Catalan T.I.A.”, inspired by a Spanish comic, where the T.I.A. is a fictitious organization which parodies the C.I.A.
The Cesicat kept silence about the authorship of the docs and, when pressed by journalists, said they would not comment on “anonymous leaks” until someone owned up for them. However, users of Dropbox who had upnloaded copies of these docs to replicate them and keep them circulating were notified that the reports had been removed as Cesicat claimed the copyright of these documents, recognising de facto the authorship of this activist monitorization. Other filesharing companies also deleted the docs without giving any reason.
Now, what´s really disturbing is not the monitoring itself, but the reason whay they are doing it. As a Barcelona lawyer specialized in internet law said: “it is illegal to create archives based on the ideology of people. And it´s even worse when the governament is using public money to do so” . People are wondering, if these leaks are from reports during mid 2012, what are they oding now? who else is in these files?
LINKS
Anonymous denounces that Catalan Government have spied activists on Twitter [EN]
The Cesicat claims the authorship of the activist’s monitoring, by Dropbox [SP]
Anonymous leaks documents showing the monitoring of activists in the web by Catalonia Government side [SP]
Video of the documents by Anonymous
Anonymous annoncement [SP]
“Cesicat Case”: catalan Black Lists [SP]
Twitter account @ceTIAcat
Twitter HT #TIAcatalana #laTIAcatalana
3. LA FLOR DE MAIG (1896-2013): 117 YEARS OF RESISTENCE UNDER THREAT OF EVICTION
The building La Flor de Maig (May Flower), located at Poblenou neighborhood in Barcelona, was built in 1896 to be the headquarters of the consumer cooperative called La Flor de Maig. It soon became the largest cooperative in Catalonia with 1,600 members, and was active until the 50s, but economic losses and the political context eventually forced the building to be sold.
After having the property in disuse for a few years, the Ateneu La Flor de Maig was recovered in the late ’70s thanks to the effort of local movements. This historic space was claimed as an establishment in which neighbours could carry out cultural and artistic activities.
The City Council agreed to take the necessary steps to make the place available for public use and they would pay the rent until the expropriation were possible. In May 2012, almost as a joke, the City Council decided unilaterally to terminate the lease agreement with the owner of the property, closing the Ateneu activity in disregard of the historic promise. The neighbours tried to save this social center, and after seeing the City Council wasn’t interested, in October of the same year they claimed the building by reopening and occupying it, once again for the use of the neighborhood.
The Ateneu La Flor de Maig is at a new turning point in its long history. It is time for celebration for the success of the recovery, reinvention and relaunch of the project that began a year ago: now there are over 15 active projects and groups, and hundreds of people participating in the Ateneu. Also, a permanent process of retrieval has started, which means, going through a process of historical revisionism of the cooperative in the neighborhood and fighting to get the Ateneu back.
Yet a trial was scheduled for November 5, threatening to evict its occupants as per a request by the owners. Ateneu members organized a protest conference a year after the reoccupation with the idea of raising awareness in the neighborhood of the risk of an unfair eviction and losing the Ateneu once again. The trial has finally been suspended, but the Ateneu is not saved yet, as a new schedule will be fixed soon
LINKS
Ateneu Flor de Maig blog [CAT]
Activities [CAT]
Projects [CAT]
Press archive [CAT, SP]
Videos
Re-occupation october 2012 [CAT]
Popular Trial [CAT]
Symbolic occupation HUB museum [CAT]
La Flor de Maig at Danger [CAT]
Social Networks
Twitter: @flordemaig HT #florenperill #flordemaig
Facebook page
Dozens of women across country participate in “drive-in” campaign, despite threats and warnings from government.from Al jazeera with thanks  |
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Saudi activists are calling the campaign the most successful in years, despite threats [AFP]
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| More than 60 women claimed to have answered their call to get behind the wheel in a rare show of defiance against a ban on female driving in the ultraconservative kingdom, Saudi activists said.
Saudi professor and campaigner Aziza Youssef said that the group received 13 videos and another 50 phone messages from women showing or claiming they had driven on Saturday. She said they had no way to verify the messages. If the numbers are accurate, this year’s campaign is the most successful effort yet by Saudi women demanding the right to drive. Continue reading “Saudi women defy driving ban across country” |
en español abajo
They claim that the victims are living through judicial and institutional abuse ‘
They criticism that their ‘salary of freedom’ has been denied.
by Natalia Puga | A Coruña Comments 25
Ten Galician women are from 00.05 hours on Tuesday on hunger strike and will remain so indefinitely, ” until a real protection , a system that truly protects ” victims of domestic violence and their children is introduced. With their fast they intend to denounce the ” total helplessness ” suffered by victims at an institutional and judicial level .
The protest is promoted by the Galician Association for the Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence ‘SEE THE LIGHT (‘Ve – laluz ‘ ) and takes place in a room provided by an individual in the center of A Coruña in which from now on there will all kinds of actions to highlight the ” institutional and judicial abuse ” suffered by the victims once you made the decision to denounce the abuse, physical and / or psychological abuse from their partners.” What we are experiencing today in Spain does not make sense . How can they call this a system to protect victims of domestic violence ? ” Asks Gloria Vazquez, president of the association . Like the other nine women who are taking part in the protest she defines herself as a ” survivor of gender violence ” and claims that it is equally important and necessary to protect themselves and their children , children who become victims of direct or indirect parental violence .
20/10/2013 –
One of the ten women who participated in the hunger strike in A Coruña by the Galician Association for the defense of victims of domestic violence ‘Ve- la Luz’ has been taken to hospital after 120 hours without eating, to undergo various medical tests .
The association began on Monday a hunger strike to claim a real protection system for this group and report their helplessness , and during this weekend the county responsible BNG Feminist Action , Victoria Louro joined the call .
In a statement, reported the transfer of one of the participants in the hunger strike , who refused to activation of a protocol for these situations, after the assistance of Emergency Health who advised her referral to a hospital.
The association says in the note that these women have been ” treated like nobodies by the responsible public institutions who should ensure the safety of all women and of these ten in particular.”
It also denounces the ” institutional neglect before an emergency situation is common in policies offered in this area ( domestic violence) .”
In any case , the association reiterates that will keep the hunger strike ” until they stop killing us for the sole crime of being women.”
SEE LINKS BELOW*******************************************************************+
original en Castellano
Diez mujeres gallegas están desde las 00.05 horas de este martes en huelga de hambre y seguirán así de forma indefinida, “hasta conseguir una protección real, un sistema que realmente proteja” a las víctimas de violencia de género y a sus hijos. Con su ayuno pretenden denunciar la “indefensión total” que sufren las víctimas y reclamar medias a nivel institucional y judicial.
La protesta está promovida desde la Asociación Gallega para la Defensa de Víctimas de Violencia de Género ‘Ve-laluz’ y se desarrolla en un local prestado por un particular en el centro de A Coruña en el que de aquí en adelante harán todo tipo de acciones para poner de relieve el “maltrato institucional y judicial” que sufre el colectivo de víctimas una vez que toman la determinación de denunciar el otro maltrato, el físico y/o psicológico de sus parejas.
“Lo que se está viviendo hoy en España no tiene sentido. ¿A esto le llaman sistema de protección a víctimas de violencia de género?”, se pregunta Gloria Vázquez, presidenta de la asociación. Como las otras nueve mujeres que secundan la protesta se define como una “superviviente de la violencia de género” y reclama que es igual de importante y necesaria la protección para ellas como para sus hijos, los menores que se convierten en víctimas de la violencia directa o indirecta de sus padres.
20/10/2013 – Galiciaé LV/ Axencias
Una de las diez mujeres que participaba en la huelga de hambre convocada en A Coruña por la asociación gallega para la defensa de las víctimas de violencia de género Ve-la Luz ha sido trasladada al hospital tras 120 horas sin comer para someterse a diversas pruebas médicas.
La asociación inició el pasado lunes una huelga de hambre para reclamar una sistema de protección real para este colectivo y denunciar su indefensión, y durante este fin de semana se sumó a la convocatoria la responsable comarcal de Acción Feminista del BNG, Victoria Louro.
En un comunicado, Ve-la Luz ha informado del traslado de una de las participantes en la huelga de hambre, que se negaron a la activación de un protocolo para estas situaciones, tras la asistencia de efectivos de Urgencias Sanitarias que aconsejaron su derivación a un hospital.
La asociación asegura en la nota que estas mujeres han sido “ninguneadas por parte de los responsables de las instituciones públicas que deberían velar por la seguridad de todas las mujeres y de estas diez en particular”.
Asimismo, denuncia el “el abandono institucional ante una situación de emergencia algo habitual en las políticas ofrecidas en esta materia (violencia de género)”.
En todo caso, la asociación reitera que mantendrá la huelga de hambre “hasta que dejen de matarnos por cometer el único delito de ser mujeres”.
The Free 