Category: solidarity

We honor Anarcha the Slave! Resisting Patriarchy and Racist Capitalism

In 2015 #Anarchagland, an autonomous-research project of #gynepunk  in Catalonia,  renamed female sex glands after 3 slaves, Anarcha, Betsey and Lucy, who were abused as guinea pigs  by the maverick doctor J Marion Sims.  …..

Dr Sims, who had no gynecological experience,  obtained up to 20 black slave women suffering gynecological injuries of torn fistulas and experimented on them, without anesthetics , for 4 years in his ”medical Plantation” in Alabama .

“If there was anything I hated,” he wrote from the outset, “it was investigating the organs of the female pelvis.”

Continue reading “We honor Anarcha the Slave! Resisting Patriarchy and Racist Capitalism”

Solidarity Acts across Europe for City Plaza, SquatBo and all squats

lübeck23j

 In Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Lübeck, Wuppertal and many other cities across Europe people protested against eviction threats against squats on Friday; #HandsOffAll Squats!

Spontaneous demo in Wuppertal, Germany, June 23rd 2017.

The Coordination of Refugee Squats (City Plaza, Notara 26, Oniro, Spyrou Trikoupi, Arahovis, 5th School, Jasmine School, Acharnon 22) called for yesterdays international day of action “Hands off the squats”. In the call, activists demand to keep the squats open, to close the camps and detention centers, to cancel the shameful EU-Turkey deal, to open the borders and stated that “you can’t evict a movement!”

In the past year repression against refugees and supporters has increased with evictions, arrests and police violence in various EU member states. Some of the squats where refugees lived in a self-organised way were evicted, for instance in Thessaloniki, Athens and Belgrade. Again and again there are reports from police violence against refugees in France, Croatia, Hungary and other European countries. Since the EU/Turkey deal, refugees are being detained at the Greek islands and deported back to Turkey.

In Athens people protested against a possible eviction of City Plaza, Papouchadiko and Zoudochou Pigis 119 in front of the ministery of migration. Projects like City Plaza succeed in where the Greek goverment and other EU member states fail; a self-determined life, a life with dignity for those who travelled to a putative Europe under extrem hard conditions.

A life where it doesn’t matter which papers people have but instead a life where people can live together in a self-organised way. Since the former City Plaza hotel was squatted more than a year ago, after the building was empty for several years, more than 1500 people lived in the building. 400 at any one time. Continue reading “Solidarity Acts across Europe for City Plaza, SquatBo and all squats”

Acciones de Solidaridad a través de Europa para City Plaza, SquatBo y los demás Centros Ocupados

– 24 de junio de 2017   por Enough is Enough!]        En Atenas, Berlín, Bruselas, Frankfurt, Lübeck, Wuppertal y muchas otras ciudades de toda Europa protestaron contra las amenazas de desalojo contra las centros ocupados el viernes pasado; #HandsOffAllSquats!“Hands off the squats”Manifestación espontánea en Wuppertal, Alemania, 23 de junio de 2017.

La coordinación de las ocupaciones de refugiados (City Plaza, Notara 26, Oniro, Spyrou Trikoupi, Arahovis, 5ª escuela, Jasmine School, Acharnon 22) pidió el día internacional de acción “Manos fuera de todos los squats#HandsOffAll Squats!…

En la convocatoria, los activistas exigen que se parar los desalojos, cerrar los campamentos y los centros de detención, cancelar el vergonzoso acuerdo UE-Turquía, abrir las fronteras y declararon que “no se puede desalojar un movimiento”.berlin23j

En el último año, la represión contra los refugiados y los partidarios ha aumentado con los desalojos, los arrestos y la violencia policial en varios estados miembros de la UE. Algunas de las ocupaciones donde los refugiados vivían de manera auto-organizada fueron desalojadas, por ejemplo en Thessaloniki, Athens and Belgrade. Continue reading “Acciones de Solidaridad a través de Europa para City Plaza, SquatBo y los demás Centros Ocupados”

Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell.. Free Download, PDF

1 VJ_8VSE7JKiumlXUVqw5vw

Literature,  shared with thanks

…”They [Catalans] had attempted to produce within the militias a sort of temporary working model of the classless society. Of course there was no perfect equality, but there was a nearer approach to it than I had ever seen or than I would have thought conceivable in time of war.”…

FREE DOWNLOAD CLICK HERE

Homage to Catalonia (1938) is what it says, George Orwell’s homage to the people of Catalonia who attempted an anarchist/socialist revolution in response to the army’s attack on their fledgling democracy, and more broadly in response to centuries of harsh rule by feudal landowners supported by the Catholic church and the monarchy. A revolution that was brought down not by the civil war but by the backsliding of right-wing socialists in the Republican government and by the treachery of the Communists.

In this it resembles (or presages) another account of anarchist ‘revolution’ undone by Communists, Daniel Cohn-Bendit’s Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative(1968) about the Paris uprisings of that year and which I have owned almost since it was written. In fact, a great deal of Orwell’s book, particularly about the lies invented and propagated by the news media, serves to show plus ca change etc.

Homage to Catalonia has two parts – Orwell’s memoir of his time as a volunteer soldier, and an analysis of the failure of the Revolution – written in the immediate aftermath of his service, “five months ago” as he says, and before the end of the Spanish war (1936-1939). The book contains a third part, Looking Back on the Spanish War, written in 1943. But that deals in particular with the partisan, dishonest role played by the press and deserves a separate review. Continue reading “Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell.. Free Download, PDF”

A New World in our Hearts: ‘La Rimaia’ Squat centre Evicted for 5th Time

Incredibly last week was the 5th time the Occupied Social Centre La Rimaia  (pronounced ReeMyYa) has been violently evicted. Its history reads like a passionate anti-capitalist thriller.

Beginning in Dec 2008 the first Rimaia was occupied in central Barcelona at the height of the student uprising against the Bologna process of elitism and  privatising of Universities.

After a violent eviction the ‘okupas’ took over a huge building in the main Gran Via and declared the Free University with dozens of free courses and workshops. it had a library, an art workshop, a cooperative and multiple classes (philosophy, computer networks, Languages…).

see also.. New Mutual Aid Hotline Blocks dozens of Evictions, Threats and Toxic Capitalism

After another shocking illegal surprise eviction the Rimaia Free Uni grabbed an abandoned building in the Sant Antoni barrio where the project has put down community roots.Pablo Molano, center> his life and death were the inspiration of the latest New Rimaia

Inside the Free University you could live the revolution in miniature, all is decided in open assembly and almost always unanimously, with up to 70 people, 30 living there and 40 with projects. Living freely with huge enthusiasm and creativity. Continue reading “A New World in our Hearts: ‘La Rimaia’ Squat centre Evicted for 5th Time”

Indigenous Communities unite to fight Megaprojects in Chinantla Mountains, Oaxaca

 Etractivism is a war against the people

By Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F  at  Avispa Midia

The Chinantec people, inhabitants of the Cajonos River basin in the north of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, are carrying out an organizational process throughout their entire territory, the Chinantla, against economic projects that seek to commodify nature as a whole.

They are megaprojects such as mining, hydroelectric dams, highways, conservation projects, and, more recently, hydrocarbons. It is not a coincidence Chinantla is considered a priority of economic interest for the Mexican government. It houses the third largest tropical rainforest in Mexico. After the Lacandona jungle in Chiapas, and the Chimalapas in Oaxaca, it is the best preserved and one of the richest in biodiversity.

Unsustainable Extractivism destroys our land and water Continue reading “Indigenous Communities unite to fight Megaprojects in Chinantla Mountains, Oaxaca”

How Wonder Woman turned from a Hero to a War Crimes Supporter.

The wonder of imperial feminism

is a Palestinian writer and the author of the international bestselling novel, Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010). She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO for children.

  from Al Jazeera with thanks         When I was a little girl, like many women of my generation who grew up watching American television shows (even if they were dubbed in Arabic), I used to twirl and twirl, trying to attain super powers like Wonder Woman. I would twitch my nose to magically transform my surroundings, like Samantha from Bewitched.

Image result for bewitched..female powerThese female characters were exceptions among the docile housewives, the efficient secretaries, and damsels in distress that pervaded the popular media of my time. Wonder Woman and Samantha had the power to change their lives, even if that power had to remain hidden, forever a secret. Continue reading “How Wonder Woman turned from a Hero to a War Crimes Supporter.”