The Free

Anarchist Prisoners in the rotating Hunger Strike in Spanish State

Oct 27 2020 0 By thecollective

Spain: 14 anarchist/libertarian prisoners take part in a rotative hunger strike

Rotative hunger strike in Spanish prison

Since last 1st of September 2020 at least 14 prisoners, mostly anarchists, are taking part in a new rotative hunger strike against the precarious health conditions in the Spanish prisons.

They have presented also a 14 point program against isolation custody (FIES/DERT), tortures and physical and psychical violence from the prison guards, dispersion of prisoners far from their homes, etc.

Each comrade is doing a 10-days-hungerstrike, one following other, every month 3 prisoners.

Violence in Spanish prisons is very common, every year 200 prisoners die inside Spanish prisons violently or from drugs, lack of medical attention or diseases. At present in corona times, the conditions in jail are unbearable (bad food, no activities, no visits…).

Last month of August our comrade Carmen Badía Lachos was violated b y a prison guard inside the ‘hospital’ part of the Zuera-prision (Zaragoza).

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Huge successful Indigenous, black and peasant ‘Minga’* in Colombia Eng/Esp

Indigenous, black and peasant ‘Minga’* in Colombia: breaking the fence, weaving with equals (a Minga is a Collective Work)

(leer original en castellano abajo).

by Raul Zibechi 28 octubre, 2020 11 minute read from “Alternativas” magazine shared with thanks translation thefreeonline

More than 8,000 indigenous people, peasants and Afro-descendants arrive in Bogotá to denounce the massacres that are taking place throughout Colombia with the complicity of the Government of Iván Duque.

“Guard, guard. Strength, strength ”, thousands of young people chant raising their chontas (wooden canes), showing the decision of the native peoples, blacks and peasants to defend life and territory, during the Minga that has arrived on Sunday, October 18 for the night to Bogotá. There are 8,000 wills who traveled 450 kilometers from Cali, in the south of the country, to the capital, mobilizing 500 vehicles, many goats (open buses from rural regions) and walking in an orderly manner, flanked by the Indigenous Guard.

It is the only organized mobilization with precise objectives, capable of setting Colombian society in motion. Proof of this is that all the media, even the most right-wing, are covering the Minga, and that the extreme right of the Democratic Center, Uribismo, supporters of former President Álvaro Uribe, filed a complaint because, they say, “the mobilization is violating biosafety protocols and putting citizens at risk ”.

The truth is that the arrival of thousands of indigenous, Afro and peasant farmers to Bogotá mobilized a good part of the capital, where it was received by the young people who won the streets last November, during the national strike, and occupied them again on 9 and September 10 in response to the murder of a lawyer by the police. The multicolored chivas circulated overflowing to the sound of whistles and drums.

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Firefighters hope for a break in the wind as 2 wildfires burn in California’s Orange County with little containment

The Extinction Chronicles

Chris WoodyardUSA TODAY0:190:49https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.419.0_en.html#goog_720247585

LOS ANGELES — Tens of thousands of residents in California’s Orange County remained under evacuation orders Tuesday as two wildfires continued to threaten upscale neighborhoods.

As morningcame, the Silverado Fire had consumed 17square miles with only 5% containment, prompting an expansion of the evacuation orders to include sections of Mission Viejo, the Orange County Fire Authority reported.

About 70,000 Irvine residents were under evacuation order and another 6,000 in nearby Lake Forest.

To the east, the Blue Ridge Fire has burned about 23¾square miles with no containment as of Tuesday morning. Officials said more than 8,700 homes are under evacuation.

They include 5,958 in the Chino Hills, 2,500 in Yorba Linda and 276 in Brea. Ten Yorba Lindahomes weredamaged by the flames, butno structures had been reported lost in either of the two blazes.

About 1,000 firefighters were battling the Blue Ridge Fire and another…

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Flu away: Scientists baffled at disappearance of influenza… but is it really gone, or just masked by Covid-19?

26 Oct, 2020 20:29 Get short URL

By Peter Andrews, Irish science journalist and writer based in London. He has a background in the life sciences, and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in genetics.

There has been a 98% plummet in flu infections this year, dispelling fears of a Covid and flu ‘twin-demic’ about which many had warned. Experts say we can thank masks and social distancing. But does this really add up?

The deadly viruses that vanished without trace

Although there is no mass testing for flu as there is for Covid, the WHO says that surveillance of data from around the world shows flu rates collapsing everywhere.

Australia essentially ‘skipped’ their flu season this year, with not a single case reported since July (their peak). In fact, flu has more or less vanished throughout the Southern Hemisphere, and early indicators suggest it will follow suit north of the equator.

What can explain this unprecedented decline?