The Free

note: We don’t support the repressive Russian State, yet we warmly support the bravery, culture and love of the ethnic Russian rebels still besieged in Donbass.

from thefreeonline on April 14, 2023 by Julio Zamarron at El Salto Diario translation thefreeonline

En Castellano Aquí

Woman walks past a hotel inhabited by civilians and attacked with HIMARS projectiles by the Ukrainian army……….Mujer pasea ante hotel habitado por civiles y atacado con proyectiles HIMARS por el ejército ucraniano. Julio Zamarrón

Human rights violations by the Russian army grab the headlines, but there are other perspectives on this conflict.

The Banda Bassotti Caravan visited the Ukrainian Donbass for yet another year (and there are now eight) to document the other side of the war: the suffering of the civilian population after nine years of war against Kiev.

Besieged Donbass: The other side of the Ukraine war

The Antifascist Caravan of Banda Bassotti, a historic Italian music band, was born in 2014 with the aim of denouncing the situation of the population of the Ukrainian Donbass after the Maidan coup, which plunged the region into a conflict, apparently territorial, but with enormous geopolitical implications.

At that time, a long war was beginning in the eastern region of Ukraine whose humanitarian and political consequences have multiplied in the last year with the escalation of the conflict until it became the “proxy war” that it always was.

During the first years of the conflict, given the lack of humanitarian corridors and international attention, the region sustained itself thanks, above all, to community networks and the structures of the popular militias themselves, many of which have now disappeared.

Since then, the Donetsk and Lugansk regions have endured more than nine years of poverty, the destruction of their main infrastructures and the deprivation of access to essential resources and services, such as the payment of pensions, nursery schools or public health.

Nine years of exile and death, of silence, of absences.

Only the international solidarity of some —very few— projects like the one illustrated in these photos has served to transfer the seriousness of their situation beyond their borders.

German observer plays with one of the children at the Sakhtayorsk Children’s Home…………Observador alemán juega con uno de los niños en el Hogar de los niños de Sakhtayorsk. Julio Zamarrón

Today, the situation is different from nine years ago, when this Caravan started, and Donbass is now – at least in theory – a place that the media and analysts around the world look to, even despite the bias in all the informations.

Continue reading “The 9 year Race War against Donbass rebels / The Banda Bassotti Caravan”

DISCUSS: Arcturus – The latest “Covid variant”

Late last night, the world was rocked – ROCKED – by the announcement of yet another variant of “covid”.

XBB.1.16 – codenamed Arcturus for as yet obscure reasons – is actually just a sub-variant of Omicron, and is “fuelling a rise of infections in India” amid concerns it:

it could be one 1.2 times more infectious than the last major sub-variant.

The supposed “surge” of cases has already meant mask mandates are returning in certain parts of India.

Nurse giving NHS 4-in-1 pre-school booster & MMR second dose Stock …

You’ll notice it’s only ever sub-variants of Omicron these days, never full variants. This is doubtless for very complicated taxonomic reasons and has absolutely nothing to do with the next Greek letter being Pi, which would make the “Pi variant” sound very silly.

Back to Arcturus, which has apparently been in circulation since late March and is only hitting the headlines now for unknown reasons. According to the media, it’s one of over 600 sub-variants of Omicron, and is no more deadly than the others, although it might take over from “Kraken” as the dominant form in the UK.

Apparently, they’ve started naming variants on the “that sounds kinda cool” basis. It’s becoming impossible to satirise, to be honest.

Time Out magazine is keen to update us all with the latest info, including the “symptoms to watch out for” with Artcuturus, which are:

• Runny nose
• Headache
• Fatigue (mild or severe)
• Sneezing
• Sore throat

…or, you know, the same as every other strain of “Covid”, and every other endemic (and mostly harmless) respiratory infection. Except with one interesting new tweak, according to the Metro:

However itchy eyes or conjunctivitis has also been flagged as a possible new symptom of the variant – particularly in cases involving children.

Which is a very sneaky thing to say as we round into hay fever season, don’t you think?

Oh well, at least the NHS’s Spring Booster campaign just started. That’s a lucky piece of timing.

All in all, whenever a new “Covid” story hits the headlines, it feels like the final season of a long-running TV show. The format is tired, all the best actors have moved on to new things, the directors and writers are no longer invested in the story, and the whole thing is just an exercise in going through the motions. But what do you think?

• Will there be a new “wave” of Covid?
• Will they try to bring back masks in the UK? Or is it just a holding exercise?
• How many kids with hay fever are about to get “Covid”?
• How are they choosing the names of these variants?
• Will we EVER get to the long-awaited Pi Variant?

23 Comments HERE

The Christian Lawyers keep trying desperately to revive the Spanish Inquisition with endless Lawsuits. The latest sues TV3 comedy presenters for Derision of Religious Dogma in a Barcelona court for “Mocking” the Virgen del Rocío

from thefreeonline on 12th April 2023 by Xan Pereira at Spanish Revolution.. Read in Castellano below

The ultra-Catholic organization of Christian Lawyers was founded in 2008 in the city of Valladolid by the lawyer Polonia Castellanos.

Over the years, Abogados Cristianos has had nearly a hundred court cases with varying success. Some of the best-known causes have been

Several court cases against feminists for heresy in holding Easter processions with statues of giant ‘Pussies’ instead of the Blessed Virgin.

VICTORY for REBEL PUSSY PARADES.. Cases Dismissed

The joint lawsuit with HazteOir.org against the Italian comedian Leo Bassi for his portrayal of the Pope;

The lawsuit against five Femen activists for breaking into a march against abortion;

Various lawsuits with the Archbishopric of Pamplona and Tudela against the artist Abel Azcona for his exhibitions and the performance titled Amen in which he denounced the cases of pedophilia in the Church;

The lawsuit against Dolors Miquel and Barcelona Mayoress Ada Colau for reading a sexual version of the Our Father.

Woman sentenced again for organizing Holy Rebel Pussy Procession’

Against actor Willy Toledo for using a foul expression that contained Catholic figures;

Against the drag queen Drag Sethlas for the use of religious symbols during the Drag Queen Gala in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2017;

Against the vice president of Madrid, Ignacio Aguado, for revealing secrets;

Against Femen Spain, which was joined by the prosecution, for chaining two activists bare-chested to the altar of the Almudena Cathedral in 2014;

And against the Valladolid City Council for limiting the capacity in places of worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Devil forgiven?.. CGT anarchist support demo for accused in Rebel Vagina Parade, Sevilla.2016 Juicio al Santísimo Coño en Sevilla

Continue reading “Far-Right Spanish Christian Lawyers continue Censorship and Repression with ‘Checkbook Power’”

1. Targeting the enemy
2. Growing revolt against smart tyranny
3. Who are the real “extremists”?
4. Mikhail Bakunin: an organic radical inspiration
5. Acorninfo

from thefreeonline on 12th April 2023 by Winter Oak and Paul Cudenec

Number 82 In this issue

1. Targeting the enemy

The invasion of BlackRock HQ in Paris on April 6 by a crowd of angry protesters and strikers revealed to the world that something very important is happening in France.

From a long distance, it may look like just another trade-union-led fightback against an increase in the retirement age.

From a closer distance, it might be evident that more general grievances against the Macron regime have temporarily amplified that union-led struggle.

But, in reality, it goes a lot deeper than that.

The revolt is a continuation, in fact, of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) uprising, which began in November 2018 and only came to an end with the Covid clamp-down.

Many Gilets Jaunes, unlike the top-down sold-out left, were involved in the massive wave of protest against vaccine passports that swept across the country in 2021.

Although the GJ uprising could itself be seen as continuation of previous struggles, such as those against the Loi Travail or in support of the ZAD at Notre-Dame des Landes, it represented a significant shift, which alarmed the authorities.

The movement was essentially uncontrollable, accepting no leadership or centralised structure, and also broke through the usual left-right divide, being a generalised revolt against the system.

The response of the Macron regime to the revolt only deepened the split between government and people.

The contempt, smears and brutal police violence unleashed against the GJs by the ruling clique, together with a refusal to take their demands seriously, shocked a large part of the French public.

This didn’t look like the kind of modern “Western” government that we are all used to, which likes to pretend to represent the people and to respond to their concerns.

Instead, Macron came across as a nasty tin-pot dictator, throwing his weight around with arrogant impunity.

Exactly the same thing has been happening in 2023. The government ignored weeks of massive and peaceful protesting, forced the law through parliament without a vote and then started banning demonstrations and mutilating protesters with military-style repression.

This looks less like a “liberal democracy” than a colonial government of occupation, determined to “put down the natives” at any cost.

And this, of course, is exactly what it is!

France is not run by representatives of the French people, but by representatives of the global money power, the criminal gang which owns pretty much everything, everywhere.

This power has decided to ditch the pretence at democracy so as to accelerate its control, under the pretext of various “emergencies”, whether Covid or climate.

Continue reading “The Acorn 82 – Attack on Blackrock / Smart Tyranny/ Super Bakunin/ Paul Cudenec / Acorn Info…”