In February, a critique of Moscow-based bands What We Feel(WWF) and Moscow Death Brigade(MDB) written by “Antifascist Subculture Worldwide”-collective appeared on the German website, Linksunten (in English). Both WWF, MDB (1) as well as 210 (2) have since responded to the criticisms. I would like to add few points to answers of WWF and MDB.
Despite the bleakness of the situation in Ukraine, at least I was amused by the fact that Nazis were fighting on both sides of the front, killing each other.
But then I found out that some "anti-fascists" have been doing the same 1) 2) 3).
I am sure that in terms of the entire former Soviet Union only a minority of the Antifas is willing to die for Poroshenko or Putin. However, the scale of this problem is significant, and any attempts to react to it 4) also have their shortcomings 5).
On Friday, the 2nd of May, the House of Trade Unions in Odessa caught on fire. Altogether at least 42 people lost their lives during the clashes in the city, most of them in the fire and the others in streetfights. There is an excellent Russian language, eyewitness account of the events available here.
On Friday 10th of January Basmanniy district court of Moscow ceased criminal case against Alexey Olesinov, Alexey Sutuga, Alyon Volikov and Babken Guskasyan. All four were accused of “hooliganism”, a criminal offense which is included in the amnesty bill, approved as a PR stunt on initiative of Vladimir Putin himself in advent of the Sochi Winter Olympics – most known amnestied political prisoners being 30 detainees of the Arctic Sunrise ship of Greenpeace, and two imprisoned members of Pussy Riot.
28th of November Lenin district court of the city of Tyumen uphold a request of the prosecutor of the Lenin district on recognition a text I wrote two years ago as “extremist”.
Some claim, that anarchism opposes violence, as for anarchists means and ends meet. But only second statement is correct, wherease first is not. This because in anarchism violence is not only means, but in a certain sense a goal in itself.
With this, I do not mean childish boasting about hanging last bourgeois to guts of last priest or anything like that. Destruction of class enemies as individuals is not a revolutionary goal. As Kropotkin wrote, one may hardly avoid some excesses from side of most angered people, but obviously it is goal of anarchists to minimise them.
In Russian mainstream media, turn of the Nizhni Novgorod was handled with little revealing headlines - "Case of Nizhni Novgorod anti-fascists was returned to investigators". Thus few understood, that as a matter of fact this was perhaps the sweetest victory of Russian anti-fascist movement this year, this far.
I was invited to speak, and I agreed immediately - LAB is the biggest (or perhaps secondmost biggest, after San Fransisco) anarchist bookfair in the world, could be also the biggest annual anarchist event in the world. One may only crudely estimate number of participators, as entrance is free. Free programs were handed out, with a suggested donation of one pound. 2600 pounds were collected, which is a rather good estimation of number of participators.
Almost two months have passed since the Baltic Anarchist Meeting http://www.bam2012.org/ was organised in Tallinn of Estonia 25th-27th of May, but only now I had time to write some impressions. I haven't come across any other reports yet, but I hope they would show at some point up as I missed many of the discussions.
who are sorry with the fact I got kicked out from Russia. You know nothing about it, you have never been in the same situation and you will never be. I do not want to think about the whole issue, so do not say anything.
Consider a situation, when your feet got torn off in some accident. Would peoples condolences bring your feet back?
No they would not.
Condolences make sense when it is about some temporary loss, which you may get over with. For example, if your house burns down, you maybe may have another house at some point.
I gathered links on articles in English, Russian, Finnish and Swedish on my exile from Russia. Technically, I am not deported - it is just my residence permit annulled, and I am refused a visa. In practice, these are pretty much the same thing, actually blacklisting from a visa is even worse - deportation means five years ban of entrance, but blacklisting has no any established time limit.
Links are ordered according to language and relevance.
In English:
Russia to deport Finnish activist who plans to write a book
Helsingin Sanomat 3th of April 2012
On Thursday, the 14th of June anarchist and member of the Moscow - Autonomous Action, Antti Rautiainen, was denied his Russian visa request. The refusal was not exaplained.
Rautiainen had a Russian temporary residence permit, but it was annulled at the end of March. According to authorities, he had made "calls to violently overthrow constitutional order or Russian Federation." He was given 15 days to leave the Russian Federation.
On April 20 we made a solidarity action against political repression in
the form of the threatened deportation of Antti R. (More info about
the case: http://themoscownews.com/russia/20120404/189590201.html or http://hro.rightsinrussia.info/archive/refugees-idps/antti-rautiainen/picket)
We visited the Russian Embassy with a small picket, condemning
political repression by the state.
In the far North-West of a once mighty empire, there is a distant province, mostly known due to the sluggishness of its inhabitants. They have still not gotten rid of the statue of a czar, who ruled 150 years ago, in the central square of their capital. Inhabitants of the province have never won a single war, but they have a plenty of other reasons to be proud - for example, a ski-jumper who achieved a lot in 1980, but has since then struggled with a substance abuse problem.
On the 29th of March the Federal Migration Service of Russia gave Finnish citizen Antti Rautiainen, a member of Autonomous Action, an order to leave the Russian Federation within 15 days. According to the order, Rautiainen is suspected of "making statements for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order." Migration authorities have commented, that such decisions are made according to orders from the FSB.
Rautiainen wants to appeal the decision with help of lawyers from the "Civic Action" NGO.
TerraSelvaggia is an Italian eco-anarchist paper, which made this interview with Russian Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages last September. Paper issue came up some time ago after the usual delays, so now it is time for online publication. Keep in mind, that this interview reflects the situation in Russian society last September – before the recent massive protest against election fraud. Now much has changed since then, but much is still the same. Enjoy!
***
For the beginning, about us, so that you know from which perspective we are talking.
Situation in Northern Caucasus and Libertarian reaction
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This article was originally published in Avtonom #30 in the Autumn of 2008. whole issue is available in PDF format here. It was translated for Abolishing the Borders from Below #35 in Autumn of 2009 with a number of mistakes corrected and some information updated..
It is of little doubt that the total failure of any attempts to oppose the Second Chechen War was the most bitter defeat of the Russian anarchist movement during the past decade. A feeling of total powerlesness in front of the brutal realities of the Chechenyan meat-grinder was pressing so heavily on the imagination of anti-authoritarians during the first half of the decade, that the movement was onlyable to recovere slightly when the intensity of the war gradually calmed down.
My assumption of guilt
On the arrests of the suspected murderers of StanislavMarkelov and Anastasia Baburova
Избиение коричневой мрази стало весьма популярным развлечением среди городской молодежи разных национальностей. Даже кремлевские политтехнологи, почитав «Автоном», сделали вывод, что антифашизм имеет некоторые перспективы.
«Moscow Pride ‘06 – Московский Международный Гей-фестиваль» запланирован на 24-28 мая 2006 г. Предварительная программа выключает в себя «день скандинавской гомокультуры» с семинарами и выставками, конференцию об Оскаре Уайльде (с участием его внука), первую международную конференцию Дня Против Гомофобии, культурную программу и - «самое скандальное» - первый ЛГБТ-парад. Он должен состоятся 27 мая, в день, когда исполнится 13 лет отмене уголовной ответственности за гомосексуализм.
Maroon communities of Americas are of interest to anti-authoritarian left of the area, looking for inspiration outside White/European context. One way to explain history of Cossacks of Ukraine to an American Leftist would be to define it as European analogue of a Maroon society. Listen this...
I will give a presentation about repression against anarchists and anti-fascists in Russia at the Baltic Anarchist Bookfair in Tartu next Saturday at 1 PM EET/Moscow time (12 PM CET) at Hell (Tiigi 76A). You can also follow the presentation on Twitch. Short summary fo the talk: After...
In September 2024, I gave a presentation in Dresden about struggles against the right-wing government in Finland. Freedom published a text based on that presentation last September, but due to character limitations I had to skip an introduction to the Finnish party system. This background is...
Repression targets Chita anarchists already jailed for war resistance and anti-regime graffiti The regional prosecutor’s office for the Trans-Baikal region in eastern Siberia has submitted a petition to a local court to recognize the “Trans-Baikal Left Association” as a terrorist...