repression

If you are reading this, you have probably noticed that we have a new website with Network23. Our old Noblogs site has not been updated since the end of August and will likely go down in the near future. We have ported over a lot of our old site, but for the time being many links and files on ported pages and posts will refer to the old Noblogs site and it will take us a while to work through them all and correct them. The reason for this change-over is that the provider of Noblogs, the Italian Autistici/Inventati (A/I) collective, has been forced to shut down by US sanctions. From there own announcement at the time here:

A campaign for better pay and working conditions by Polish postal workers supported by the ZSP-IWA union is facing increasing repression. Following nation-wide protests, the government-owned postal office have sought to silence protesting workers and fired several of the organisers. In addition, they have brought a series of bogus criminal cases against members of our sister union, the ZSP-IWA, who have supported the self-organised campaign of postal workers. SolFed-IWA is in solidarity with postal workers in Poland. Stop state repression of workers now! An injury to one is an injury to all!

Calderdale SF/IWA condemns the police violence against Catalan citizens on the 1st October 2017 who went to vote on what the Spanish state has declared to be an illegal referendum on independence. While, as anarchosyndicalists, we don't support the creation of a new state, which reflects mainly the interests of the Catalan bourgeoisie, we do condemn all police violence and intimidation against men, women and children. Instead of the creation of new states with warring police and capitalist factions pitted against one another, we favour the deeply embedded solution of libertarian federalism - free, self-managed communities that are plural, open and tolerant.

Calderdale SF also supports the general strike called in Catalonia by independent unions such as our sister union the CNT/IWA on 3rd October, which not only opposes a capitalist free-for-all as proposed by all state actors but which also defends the self-empowerment of the working class.

Calderdale SF/IWA

South London Solidarity Federation would like to express solidarity with members of the Mexican Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion teaching union, who have faced violent attack by the police and state.

The union, which is made up of teachers from the poorer southern states, is protesting new mandated teacher evaluations. These it describes as ignoring the challenges of providing education in rural and underfunded areas whilst also enabling mass teacher layoffs. This is part of a wider programme of privatisation across Mexican education, removing the limited educational provision available to the poorest.

As a Bristol SF member recently arrived at a UK airport he was not expecting to be approached by plain clothed police and invited to have a little chat. This blatant attempt to harass and intimidate one of our members swiftly ended as the SF member, after realising they were not going to detain him, attempted to record the conversation and chased them off.

Bristol SF have a clear message for the police. We are about working-class solidarity, internationalism and freedom. Your creed is suspicion and paranoia. Your role is to protect privilege and crush dissent. We will never talk to you.

Recently, Richard Siggs, a Police Sergeant from Brighton, has been communicating with several charity agencies. In the text, he explains his concern about the “intolerable level” the numbers of “very visible members of the Street Community” have reached in the streets of Brighton, and he asks the agencies to reinforce these three ideas while dealing with their clients:

"Brighton & Hove do not accept rough sleeping to be a valid life choice, it is dangerous and based on chaotic life style"
"There is nowhere in Brighton & Hove to street drink, would you like us to refer you to support for your addiction?"
"Any property left laying around on the streets will be removed by the local authority and may be destroyed"

Last Monday the 30th of April there was a new repressive strike against the anarchist movement in Spain. Thirty eight people were arrested in a police operation under the name ”Operación Piñata”. Fifteen  of them are facing charges of terrorism and five are in preventive imprisonment. Private homes, social centers and squatted spaces were registered in Madrid, Barcelona, Palencia and Granada.

Raids were carried out in a very open way, trying to create social alarm. The media is publishing names of people and groups and presenting as facts fake accusations. They talk about “anarchist terrorism” and organisations with leaders, hierarchical infrastructures and varied recruitment methods.

This is the continuation of police operation “Operación Pandora”, which took place last December within a context of constantly increasing repressive politics from the Spanish government.

Sun 19 Apr 7pm, Edinburgh benefit gig & films in solidarity with Anarchists against repression in Spain. Banshee Labyrinth EH1 1LG - event

also join us Fri 17 April 12noon - Edinburgh solidarity picket against 'Ley Mordaza' and to demand all 'Operación Pandora' charges in Spain are dropped - event

Judge Eloy Velasco freed a dozen of the arrested with charges, three from Barcelona and seven from Madrid. The Prosecutors requested admission in preventive imprisonment for five other people.

The morning of the 1st of April fifteen people who were arrested as part of Operation Piñata declared before the Audiencia Nacional. The two women and the men arrested in Barcelona were released that afternoon, but will to go to the closest court to sign periodically. Seven of those arrested people (in Madrid) face the same situation.

The Prosecutor, however, requested that five people had to be admitted to preventive prison. In fact, the lawyers who were in charge of the defense of the detainees learnt that morning that in the prison cell of the High Court (Audiencia Nacional) they were fifteen people waiting to declare, when until then, they thought that there had been just thirteen arrests.

Solidarity Protest
MEET: Spanish Consulate, 63 North Castle St, Edinburgh EH2 3LJ
FRIDAY 6 March 2015 – FROM 12:00noon

13 people facing trial just for being anarchists.

On 16/12/14 the Catalan police broke into 14 houses and social centres, destroying and stealing everything of value. 11 comrades were charged by a high court and 7 spent more than a month in prison.

On 29/01/15, the 7 imprisoned comrades were released but the state accuses all 11 (plus the 2 anarchists locked up for more than a year) of being members of a terrorist group, thus reaffirming its intention to treat everyone who questions it as a terrorist.