The International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating the US for alleged crimes committed during the post-9/11 occupation of Afghanistan. Specifically, the investigation is examining claims of torture and ill treatment. But there’s one big catch. It may not be able to examine some crimes because of insufficient evidence. Fortunately, these incidents aren’t hard to find. The US is not party to the ICC. But the ICC investigation is possible because Afghanistan has ratified the Rome Statute that underpins the court. This means that any crime carried out on its territory comes under ICC jurisdiction.
On a visit to Barcelona last week, I learned a great deal about the City’s pioneering role in developing “the city as a commons.” I also learned that crystallizing a new commons paradigm – even in a city committed to cooperatives and open digital networks – comes with many gnarly complexities.
The Barcelona city government is led by former housing activist Ada Colau, who was elected mayor in May 2015. She is a leader of the movement that became the political party Barcelona En Comú (“Barcelona in Common”). Once in office,
Colau halted the expansion of new hotels, a brave effort to prevent “economic development” (i.e., tourism) from hollowing out the city’s lively, diverse neighborhoods. As a world city, Barcelona is plagued by a crush of investors and speculators buying up real estate, making the city unaffordable for ordinary people. Continue reading “Barcelona’s Complex Struggle to Advance the Commons”
An estimated two thousand people marched through the center of Manchester today in what was probably the largest anti-fracking gathering ever seen in the United Kingdom. Activist converged on the city from Lancashire, Yorkshire, London, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, claiming Manchester was today the “capital of the so-called bleak and desolate north“.
The march was led by Bianca Jagger, who addressed the crowd at the Castlefield Arena by saying “I’m here not only as the founder and president of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, but as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother because I feel fracking is a real threat to our way of life, it’s a threat to our environment, it’s a threat to our water sources, it’s a threat to the air we breathe, it’s a threat to everything we think is important in our lives.”
A Madrid exhibition showed 81 photos of T-shirts with slogans and drawings against the police.
–Danger.. Police At Work–
–Photos from the exhibition ‘La guerra de las camisetas’. .. (T-Shirt Wars) by SANTI OCHOA
by Jose Durán Rodríguez via Diagonal translation The Free original en castellano abajo You have seen him many times with his camera on his shoulder in demos of recent years on the streets of Madrid. What’s more, if you wore a striking T-shirt with a witty phrase or suggestive drawing, it’s likely you’ve been photographed yourself. His name is Santi Ochoa and he’s been doing it since 2003. In his file there are now more than 20,000 images of T-shirts.
From all of them, he selected 81 for this exhibition ‘La guerra de las camiseta’, (T-Shirt Wars),now finished, in the ABM Confecciones space, on Calle Encarnación González in Madrid. The idea occurred to him last year – “to make the exhibition just before the approval of the Gag Law,” explains Ochoa to Diagonal – but it is only now it has been carried out, motivated by ‘The Last Straw’..
‘‘We Are Not Afraid’
“After recent events, with the police storming a clothing store with slogans that incited, according to them, hatred or contempt for the Agents, I felt it in my own flesh and I decided to give a minimal response to that,” he recalls. He refers to the police Raid and seizure of abundant material (shirts, sweatshirts, caps) from the Bestiario Shop in Vallecas by the police in early October. Continue reading “Exhibition of 81 Anti-Police T-Shirts..’Lotta Coppers..Little Fun’..”
RAQQA – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) General Leadership has told the International Coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL) that it will halt its operation on Raqqa if Turkey doesn’t cease attacks on Manbij according to claims.
Kurdish forces heading to Raqqa frontline
In a statement via Telegram seen by KQ.com, the SDF, which recently launched the Wrath of Euphrates operation to liberate Raqqa from the IS, said it had told the anti-IS International Coalition it will halt its campaign on Raqqa and move its forces, which number 40,000, to Manbij if it does not stop the Turkish army’s attacks on liberated areas in and around Manbij in northern Syria.
Syrian-Kurdish women carry the coffin of a female fighter in Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli on July 21, 2016 during the funeral of sixteen fighters killed battling the Islamic State (IS) group in Manbij.Thousands of IS soldiers were reported killed in the Manbij battles along with about 150 SDF volunteers, including six from the International Brigade.(William Savage, from the US was killed rescuing civilians).
Turkey and Free Syrian Army groups backed by Ankara have been attacking areas north of Manbij for the past two days.
Six civilians, including children, were killed tonight in Turkish airstrikes.
The SDF has accused Turkey of damaging the fight against IS in Syria.
In response to an invitation from Wales AFed / FfA Cymru, we attended a preliminary planning meeting for this event, which is expected to take place in the South West U.K. next year. It will be open to delegates of Class Struggle organisations, and individuals who identify as anarchists. Some groups have already pledged funds and we are open to volunteers to help with logistics
Our Class is under siege on all sides, yet the response has been haphazard. Large sections of it are pursuing narrow and contradictory agendas, many have returned to archaic ideas: state socialism, corporatism, nationalism and worse. Others cling forlornly to political structures that are inherently anti-Working Class. Those at the sharp end who understand the situation best are struggling just to survive.
Yet there are opportunities too. For the first time in living memory the bourgeoisie is also divided on how to pursue its common…
from The Rebellion of Words, translation The Free We received the following statement, written by the compañerxs of Contra Madriz in response to the attacks that are being suffered by some squatter social centers in Madrid by the new city council of Madrid, which presumes to be “the change”, of “Alternative” and “rebel”, “belligerent” with the market logic that nevertheless defends in practice the interests and properties of gangsters, speculators and bankers who increase their privileges through evictions, corruption and deception, and repress people who do not conform to their norms in increasingly gentrified neighborhoods.
”Against the metropolis of the rich and speculation, against false critics and their blackmail from left or right, for self-management and recovery of our lives. Our squatting will never be legalized …
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In defense of squatting, against the state and private property …
We are witnessing a time when, in several cities of so called Kingdom of Spain, mainly in Madrid, the different regional or municipal governments are unleashing offensives against the squatting of empty buildings. This offensive is more specifically against political occupation, that is to say against occupied political spaces that not only seek to combat in one way or another the economic regime and private property, but also also want to confront the established powers and refuse to negotiate with them. Continue reading “Madrid: In defence of Squatting, against the State and Private Property …””
Child wounded in Bala Baluk massacre 
Kurdish forces heading to Raqqa frontline
The Free 