An aerial view of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
When discussing the increased violence in Chiapas, it’s helpful to remember that there is a neoliberal effort underway, promoted by the World Bank, to bring indigenous peoples in southeast Mexico into the capitalist marketplace. The vehicle for bringing this about is a massive infrastructure development plan, originally named the Plan Puebla-Panama and then re-named the Mesoamerica Project.
It’s also helpful to remember that Chiapas is Mexico’s southernmost state and has an extensive border with Guatemala, one of the Northern Triangle countries in Central America, which expel both migrants and contraband into Mexico, thus contributing to the violence that takes place.
Media reports and analysis, Zapatista communiqués and anecdotal stories from Chiapas residents indicate increased violence due to the following sources: counterinsurgency (low-intensity war against the Zapatistas), the presence of national organized crime cartels, the San Cristóbal to Palenque superhighway, municipal elections and migration.
Counterinsurgency – “Low-Intensity War against the Zapatistas”
After the 1994 Zapatista Uprising, the Mexican Army was in charge of counterinsurgency actions to capture, contain and repress the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). A February 1995 Army offensive against the Zapatistas brought about massive civil society demonstrations throughout Mexico in support of the Zapatistas and a negotiated peace in Chiapas.
We are back for the 6th annual Anarchist Book Fair in Amsterdam! The Book Fair will take place on Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th of October 2022 at the Dokhuis (Plantage Doklaan 8).
It will again be a multiple day event of stands and workshops of anarchist collectives from all around the region. It’s going to be great!
As is becoming clear to everyone, we will be facing a year of economic hardship, geopolitical unrest, rising prices of food and basic necessities and social turbulence.
In these conditions it is just as -if not more- important than ever to get together to build viable alternatives to the status quo. The bookfair is an opportunity to learn about political struggles close to home, in history and in other parts of the globe.
Let us learn and work together for a world without states, borders, ecocide, capitalism and without the violence that makes it possible.
Knowledge is power after all! Are you looking for community, in-depth conversation or like minded individuals or collectives? Come to the Anarchist Book Fair Amsterdam!
Are you looking for anarchist books and zines? We’ll have all that and much more: clothing, buttons, publishers, distro’s, workshops, talks, and vegan food! Come check us out!
More information on attending collectives, stands and workshops as well as logistics for the days themselves will be shared soon! Keep an eye out for further information!
Want to help out? We’re still looking for people who want to help volunteer during the event, we are also looking for people or groups that want to run a stand and/or with cool workshop ideas. Excited? Please send us an email!
Children among dead after Ukraine shells refugee convoy – Donbass official
Samizdat | September 29, 2022
The Ukrainian army has attacked a refugee convoy in the eastern region of Kharkov, killing over 30 people, according to the Lugansk People’s Republic’s envoy to Russia.
Rodion Miroshnik wrote on his Telegram channel that those killed in the artillery bombardment included children. He added that emergency services are unable to access the bodies, as shelling from Kiev’s forces continues.
The republic’s health ministry stated that seven other people were injured, including two children who lost their parents in the shelling.
Miroshnik claimed the Ukrainian army knew exactly who they were shooting at, as they had allegedly used drones to track down the refugee vehicle convoy and were “intentionally aiming at civilians.” Kiev has yet to respond to the allegations.
Speaking to the Russia 24 TV channel, the LPR envoy noted that the number of civilians trying to get out of Kharkov Region has significantly increased in recent days, as fighting in the area has intensified in the wake of Kiev’s forces reclaiming most of the region.
Miroshnik said most of the fleeing residents are trying to cross into Russia’s Belgorod region or the LPR, especially from the cities of Kupyansk and Balakleya.
The civil unrest in Iran in response to the recent death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was waiting at a Tehran police station, although rooted in legitimate grievances, also bears the hallmark of a western-sponsored covert war, covering multiple fronts.
Key Background
The protests, led largely by women, have been held in cities across Iran for more than a week, and have even spread to cities around the world in countries including the U.K., Turkey,Canada, France, Austria and Norway.
The first protests in Iran began last Saturday, the day of Amini’s funeral, and are the biggest public demonstrations in Iran since 2019. Police said Amini, who was taken into custody for wearing a headscarf improperly, died after a three-day coma stemming from a heart attack.
Amini’s family dispute the police account, saying the 22-year-old was healthy and have accused police of mistreatment, which authorities denied.
Witnesses say the morality police beat Amini immediately after her arrest. At least 41 people have died during the ensuing protests, according to state media, but some experts believe the toll is much higher.
Dirty money: Meet the US agent driving the CIA-led riots in Iran Meet Masih Alinejad, Washington’s weapon of choice for flaring up the largest color revolution attempt in Iran today. “I’m leading this movement,” Alinejad, 46, told The New Yorker on Saturday. “The Iranian regime will be brought down by women. I believe this’.
Mere days after the protests erupted on 16 September, the Washington Postrevealed that the Pentagon had initiated a wide-ranging audit of all its online psyops efforts, after a number of bot and troll accounts operated by its Central Command (CENTCOM) division – which covers all US military actions in West Asia, North Africa and South and Central Asia – were exposed, and subsequently banned by major social networks and online spaces.
The accounts were busted in a joint investigation carried out by social media research firm Graphika, and the Stanford Internet Observatory, which evaluated “five years of pro-Western covert influence operations.”
Published in late August, it attracted minimal English-language press coverage at the time, but evidently was noticed, raising concerns at the highest levels of the US government, prompting the audit.
On this international day of solidarity with the Iranian people, two feminists from India send you our greetings, in complete awe of your courage, your creativity, your solidarity with one another, your relentless resistance in the face of cruel and brutal repression.
Watching the panel discussion on Jadaliyya on the ongoing struggle of the Iranian people against the authoritarian regime, we were struck by the complexity of the arguments being made. The struggle is not against Islam, and it is not about hijab everywhere and at all times.
What we are witnessing in Iran is reflected all over the world wherever there is resistance to the gendered ways in which all states control populations – whether by compulsory conscription in wars the people have no interest in, or by making the hijab central to the reason of state – in Iran by compulsory veiling, in France and in India by compulsory unveiling of the Muslim woman; or in the USA by denying autonomy over their bodies to women by criminalizing abortion.
That the struggle in Iran is far wider than for bodily autonomy (and nowhere are struggles over the body only about bodily autonomy) is evident from the range of journalists, students, film makers and writers in prison over the last decade. for expressing dissent against different aspects of the authoritarian regime.
Writing as we do from India where a Brahminical Hindu supremacist, masculinist regime ruthlessly destroys Muslim and Dalit lives and livelihoods;
has subverted almost every democratic institution; criminalised dissent and free expression in universities; tries to eliminate practices of minority cultures;
violently attempts to control women’s right to choose their romantic partners;
unleashes mob violence against non-compliant women; appropriates the resources and lands of the people in the interests of corporate capital;
and imprisons without trial hundreds of voices raised in opposition to these policies – we say to you, our sisters and brothers in Iran, that everywhere in India, the stories of your militant, powerful struggle against dictatorship are being shared.
Your extraordinary courage gives us all strength.
The beauty of your protest actions moves us to tears.
The inclusiveness of your protest gives us hope.
The words you chant – Zan, Zindagi, Azaadi – are beloved and familiar, belonging to the lexicon of some of our many languages.
In our struggle for justice in India we take heart from the lines of the poet Faiz, written originally in Urdu:
That day, too, we shall see… When the dark clouds of torment and oppression Are blown away like wisps of cotton, And the pounding of our indigent feet Causes the earth to pulsate at its core. And upon the heads of our rulers Lightning will crackle and strike…
This poem has been an anthem of resistance across borders on the Indian subcontinent, from 1979 when it was written, to the 21st century.
We send it to you all – with love, in solidarity, in hope.
‘…A comprehensive study of 191 nations, published by the International Monetary Fund in September 2021, found that globally the fossil fuel industry receives subsidies of $11 million per minute, … fossil fuel companies received $5.9 trillion in subsidies in 2020, with support projected to rise to $6.4 trillion by 2025, according to the IMF report.”
$11 Million per Minute
A study by none other than the IMF found that the planet collectively spends $11 million per minute on subsidies for fossil fuels, all while the world barrels towards an impending climate catastrophe.
The Free 