La Tarcoteca

La Tarcoteca

martes, 25 de agosto de 2015

Solidarity Manifesto: For the victory of the turkish and kurdish popular resistance movements

We support the manifesto promoted by several Iberian libertarian organizations in support of the Kurdish autonomous regions. Our suspicion by organizing an army is as large as our desire to see an independent and libertarian region. Respect and encouragement to those who fight! 
To the Victory!

Source- http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/34849 and 
tarcoteca spanish version
As it is already known, turkish Kurdistan (Bakur in kurdish language) has being living a low profile war for several weeks. It is a conflict between, on one side, the turkish state – ruled by the nationalist and the president Recep Erdogan islamist party AKP – and the kurdish people and turkish left on the other side. 
The conflict began under the false pretext of fighting the Islamic State IS, that as it is known it's been years it operates from Turkey, with the complicity of the turkish state. Therefore, these operations against the jihadists have turned into an open war against all the leftist opposition, both turkish and kurdish.
The groups and collectives that sign this document condemn the repression against those towns, districts and communities that refuse to live under an indignant oppressive regime
We are inspired by a truly respect for the capacity of the kurdish and turkish popular movements to carry out a brave resistance, able not only of striking back the attacks of the turkish armed forces but also to set up a popular self-government, everywhere they can do. In this sense there are several towns, villages and districts that have announced the people's self-government as Varto, Silopi, Silvan, Cirze, Semdinli, Dogubayazit... and some other places that are ruled by a people that refuses to recognise the authority of AKP government, that wants to change the Constitution to hand full power to president Erdogan.
We note that those self-governments are not necessarily meant to remain in time, and are very conscious that their challege will be angrily answered by the turkish state. Those self-governments in some places are popular assemblies, in other BDP and HDP political parties, in other HPG, the kurdish liberation movement guerrillas or in other, as in the rebel neighbourhood in Istambul, Gazi, the same local left revolutionary movement who boosts the counterpower as far as it may be possible. All those examples, and many others, talks loud of what does it mean to be a strong and organised people in every level.
We believe that their exemple of struggle and dignity must be claimed on the same way by the european left as does with other better known historical events. The conflict has turned into a generalization of local counterpowers that rule their own territory, with the potentiality this implies.
A way to be solidary is spreading news about the massacres the turkish government is committing against the people as well as denouncing its alliance with the Islamic State. 
We must protest about that as much as we can, and also support humanitarian efforts to that area, refuge of hundreds of thousand people who are running away from the Iraq and Syria wars and who are right now crossing to Greece, therefore creating an scandal in a blind Europe before the serious problems its own imperialist politics of the last years is bringing. 
Finally, we shoud support the present situation of popular power that we wish it may spread to new areas, as well as we support the hunger strike of the kurdish political prisoners in the turkish prisons.
Signer organizations:

jueves, 6 de agosto de 2015

A night of migrants’ collective strength and severe police repression

A night of migrants’ collective strength and severe police repression. | Calais Migrant Solidarity

Saturday night was an extremely empowering but also disheartening night here in Calais. A group of 250 migrants organized together to go and try to make it inside the Eurotunnel, not to climb aboard a train but to walk the length of the tunnel to England. They walked for hours to get close to the entrance of the tunnel and managed to breach a layer of perimeter fencing only to come up against the recently reinforced fence that is electrified and topped with barbed and concertina wire. The group then went to the fence and started chanting in unison. They demanded the right to move wherever they choose, to live in dignity in Calais, and to be free of police violence. They also spoke the names of those who have recently died attempting the crossing in the Eurotunnel and laid the blame for those deaths at the hands of the police and politician’s whose policy they are enacting.



It was a very large and strong group, however on the other side of the fence were many Gendarmes and also active French military who were menacing their machine guns. The group’s chanting continued for around an hour until the point they started to make their move to try and push through the fence. People had gone down a hill and were lining a steep verge consisting of loose gravel. Those at the bottom, closest to the fence, started to try and make their way over it when suddenly the Gendarmes released a huge amount of ‘tear gas’ onto the crowd. Exactly what type of gas they used though is not clear. Having experienced it and after speaking with people afterward, it was very powerful; much more so than typical CS gas and had strong effects even at the top of the hill far from where it was sprayed. It also created a shortness of breath and a panicked feeling which suggests that it may have been CR gas. After the attack there were also people lying unconscious on the ground. Any use of gas here and particularly CR (if it was indeed that) was completely unnecessary and irresponsible. The panic that the gas created caused a stampede up the hill, but as the footing was so loose people were falling over one another trying to get away from the poison. It was difficult to breathe, see, or move in that area and many people got hurt trying to flee from the gas into a more open space. However, the group, after recovering from the attack, got together and held a meeting about what to do next. They decided to occupy the road leading to the freight terminal at the Eurotunnel, their aim, to stop traffic until they were heard.

The group walked for around one hour from the fence by the entrance to the tunnel to the turn off from the highway to the Eurotunnel terminal. They arrived at about 3am and occupied the road blocking trucks from entering the Eurotunnel terminal. They repeated their chants and demands. When the two vans of CRS that showed up tried to move them on the whole group sat down in the road and started chanting louder. The police were forced to stop trying to move them on and stand by, observing a peaceful protest by 150 migrants as they demanded their rights, dignity, and free movement. The road was occupied for around three hours. The group kept chanting and shouting, being led by one woman repeating that the borders be opened to them to stop the deaths here in Calais. The police appeared to be tolerating the peaceful protest, until around 6am when more companies of CRS arrived. The Commissariat of Calais came and asked the group to disperse. They were complying and starting to leave the motorway when the CRS became impatient and started pushing and shoving people off. The group went as fast as possible but they had to go over many guardrails which took time. The police then started to throw people over the fence and sprayed CS gas. After this clearing of the road, people were dispersing peacefully when all of the sudden a whistle was blown. The CRS then started to run after the two groups that had gone off in different directions. They beat anyone who came within reach while chasing them off. They sprayed CS gas against the people who were running away, one officer even reached his arm around somebody who was running away in order to spray him directly in the face. This was completely unnecessary and a sadistic attack on people participating in a peaceful protest.

What we can take from the night, despite the severe repression, was the strength the group had not only in trying to reach the Eurotunnel but also organizing to blockade the highway. Important to note though, was the difference in policing tactics given the level of media attention that each event had. At the tunnel there were many film crews and so the police for the most part did not attack except for their one gassing of the entire group. However, during the eviction which took place in the morning after all the news crews had gone to sleep they were typically brutal. In case anyone could forget the violence continues here daily but also the resistance.

Open the Border! Stop the Violence!

ACAB!!!
Also see:
http://antifascistnetwork.org/2015/01/22/against-fascism-against-borders-join-us-in-dover-on-sunday-25th/

domingo, 2 de agosto de 2015

CNT Statement: Solidarity with all those fighting against authoritarianism and autocracy in Turkey and Kurdistan

Source: En solidaridad con todos los que luchan contra el autoritarismo y la autocracia en Turquía y el Kurdistán- Confederación Nacional del Trabajo CNT

Indignation has take the streets of Turkey after the suicide bombing outrage from the fundamentalist murderers of Daesh (ISIS, Islamic State) in Suruç, and the following cynical, shameful and criminal attitude adopt by the Turkish government. Them mass demonstrations and violent clashes in almost all Turkish cities, from Istanbul to the Kurdish areas, expresing the anger of a population that rebels against the bonds of complicity, increasingly evident, that joined the Erdogan's government to the Al Baghdadi's Caliphate. The official response has been swift: arrest of hundreds of Kurdish and leftist militants, bombing PKK positions in Iraq and the YPG in northern Syria and, in general, a violence that finish with the peace process and the ceasefire in force these last years. No mistake, that some of the air raids and arrests have been directed against the Daesh and their supporters in no way means that these are the main objectives of the offensive. If anything, these are only excuses for the cynical attitude of the Turkish government, whose response to the slaughter of Suruç is to mob the victims support groups and arrest the relatives of the deceased. 85% of those arrested following the attack are members of pro-Kurdish or leftist groups, the remaining 15% are salfists. What it was once a suspect is now a shouted secret: the State and the Turkish Government collaborate with Daesh in their fight against the secular and revolutionary forces in Turkey and Kurdistan.

On the one hand, the 32 deaths and dozens of injuries among the brigadist who gathered in Suruç to address the reconstruction of Kobanî are a clear message to all laics and progressive sectors of the Muslim world: for religious fundamentalists, all who defend freedom against the imposition deserves death.

Ultimately, beyond any ethnic or religious excuse, the Caliphate is nothing but the cultural form of the totalitarian state, in its most barbaric and intolerant version. Call Nazi or fascist to the Daesh would be an anachronism. But as pointed out by several authors, the model of the caliphate is not as much a proper medieval regime as a twentieth century totalitarian dictatorship, dressed with a theocratic garb.

On the other hand, it is precisely on this matter why the Turkish Government finds more affinities with Daesh tham with the laics and liberal sectors of the country, especially considering its own authoritarian drift to dictatoship, more pronounced as lost more supports. So that is more concerned with the establishment of an opposition movement in Turkey and Kurdistan than with crimes against humanity committed by the Salafists. Genocide, child and teenagers from ethnic minorities sexual slavery, summary executions, with the cruelest methods, torture, persecution of homosexuals, repression of women. In general all kind of atrocities that comes with unbridled state power and schizophrenic-theocratic doesn't seem to concern the Turkish State as much as the establishment of free zones in northern Syria and its relationship with the rebellious left-wing opposition in Turkey itself.

The situation in the Middle East can not be explained as a clash between Arab and Western, Christian and Muslim, or between ethnic Kurds and Turks, although these aspects are also present. Not surprisingly, the suicide of Suruç was as Kurdish as any YPG militiaman that send Daesh minions to rot in hell every day. And finally, all they are Sunni Muslims, as the units of the Free Syrian Army, fighting in Rojava against both Daesh and Al-Assad's sirian dictatorship, even though they had less importance to the cosporate media. What is now disputing in Turkey and Rojava it is rather a civil war between supporters of a theocratic dictatorship, a totalitarian state model adapted to the cultural and historical characteristics of the area, and the enemies of religious imposition. It is a repeated pattern in many Muslim societies, but in no case the confrontation is so bitter and violent as here. If we add the revolutionary and anti-state content within the democratic confederalism defended by YPG militias in northern Syria, we understand why the Turkish government is more scare with such own internal opposition and the establishment of liberated zones across its border tham with the suicidal and beheaders caliphate fanatics army. An armed people that conquers its freedom is the worst nightmare of any state.

Beyond any differences that may have and without falling into idealizations, CNT reaffirms its commitment to freedom and against fanaticism and authoritarianism and sends a fraternal and libertarian hug to those who face every day the bombs and bullets of terrorist states to defend imposition-free areas, which are also ours. The blood of the martyrs of Suruç, of protesters killed by Turkish police and militiawoman and menthat face fundamentalism every day is the same that beat in our hearts with libertarian longing. Their sacrifice also builds our freedom and we are eternally grateful to them. His victories are ours. A strong embrace of solidarity, fellows.

For the CNT-AIT

Foreign secretary



The following is the statement of DAF (Revolutionary Anarchist Action, Turkish libertarian group that supports the fight in northern Syria) on the slaughter of Suruç. We endorse his words and indignation.

PRESS PARTNERS OF DAF (Revolutionary anarchist action - TURKEY)

July 21, 2015.

OUR ANGER our sadness, Kobanî will be rebuilt!

Yesterday, about 300 people from different cities, came together under the call of the of Socialist Youth Asoci Federation to rebuild Kobanî, a city that tried to be sacked by the Islamic State. Today, arriving in Suruç (Pîrsus in Kurdish), just before departing for Kobanî, these young people made a press statement in front of the Amara Suruç (Pîrsus) Cultural Center. At the end of the press release, a bomb exploded amid the crowd, silencing many hearts had been beating in the hope of reconstruction.

According to information gathered until today, 31 people died and hundreds were injured in the blast. After the explosion today, from the Suruç (Pîrsus) hospitals we hear the names of the fallen. Those who came from different cities, those with high hopes in their hearts, are now fallen under the objective of the murderers.

People have taken to the streets in order to account for the death of the fallen, those waiting outside hospitals are threatened by TOMA (water turret vehicles) and the police who came to the Amara Cultural Center, before ambulances. In Mersin, in Siirt, in İstanbul ... people coming out to the streets is threatened with being massacred by the murderer State, through the of murderers collaborators.

Those who have killed many lives, starting the first day of Kobanî Resistance, are now trying to demoralize us by killing our brothers.

We are trying to rebuild a new life against ISIS (Islamic State), against the state collaborating with ISIS, against the war policy of the state that never ends. No matter what the cost, even with our pain and our anger, we will rebuilt Kobanî and recreate life in this sacked geography.

(Today Alper Sapan, of the Anarchist Initiative Eskişehir, was killed in the attack. And a friend called Evrim Deniz Erol was severely wounded)

Biji Berxwedana Kobanî! / Long live the resistance Kobanî!

Biji Şoreşa Rojava! / Long live the Revolution Rojava.

Anarchist action Revolucionariad (DAF)

sábado, 1 de agosto de 2015

Reclaim the Fields International Action Camp

Am y fersiwn Cymraeg cliciwch yma.
South Wales Anarchists will be participating at this camp.
If you are intrested in joining us email gaggededitorial[at]lists[dot]riseup[dot]net

About the camp
Reclaim the Fields (or RTF) UK was born in 2011, as a star in a wider constellation of food and land struggles that reaches around the globe. Since 2011, camps and other RTF gatherings have helped support local communities in struggle, share skills, developed networks, and strengthened the resistance to exploitation, in Bristol, west London, Gloucestershire, Nottingham and Fife among other locations.
Every two years there is also an international camp, where people from around Europe and beyond meet together to support a local struggle (from gold mining in Romania to open cast coal mining in Germany, for example). People share share stories and ideas about resistance and reclaiming our food system beyond national borders. This year, an international gathering will be held in in Wrexham, Wales.
The aims of the camp are:
To support local communities in the west and north west of England, and the north of Wales with their struggles against fracking
To increase participation in Reclaim the Fields
To demonstrate visible, active opposition to prison construction
To support Borras Community Protection Camp build a garden and infrastructure to become more self-reliant
To demonstrate the interconnection between these struggles
To inspire and radicalise everyone involved
What’s taking place?
Actions – demonstrations & actions against companies involved in the construction of the North Wales prison, as well as local fracking-related targets. Everything from solidarity demos at local prisons to leafleting on Wrexham highstreet.
Workshops & Skillshares – Over the bank holiday weekend there will be abundant opportunities to learn, share, discuss and connect with other people.
Building & Growing on the site – Be part of installing gardens & low impact infrastructure at the community protection camp. Learn about permaculture, agroecology, forest gardening, mushroom growing, pallet construction, compost toilet making, off-grid electrics and more.
Why this camp? Why now?
This camp has been organised to support the local community in Borras to resist fracking in their area (as well as working with other local anti-fracking groups & protection camps in the North West who have been resisting extreme energy developments for a number of years). To find out more about their struggle visit: http://www.frackfreewrexham.org.uk/the-camp/
It has also been organised to give attention to the North Wales Prison Project that is being constructed. This will be Europe’s second largest prison holding 2100 prisoners and the first of a number of ‘mega prisons’ that the UK Government wish to build. Click here for more information about the prison, why we are against it & links to articles about the prison industrial complex in the UK
Practical Information about the Camp
Click on the links below to find more practical information about the camp and how to get involved:
Getting involved
This is a DIY camp and everyone is needed to get stuck in to make it happen. People are needed to:
Support with publicity before the event – sharing the gathering online, putting posters up, encouraging your local group to get involved. People are also needed to help design the programme, respond to emails & plan facilitation.
Helping with site set up & building infrastructure (planning this in advance & being on site a few days before the gathering)
Signing up to a shift over the weekend to help with cooking, site set up & safety, being on the welcome tent & so forth
Supporting local groups to organise actions
If you can help with any of these tasks please email info@reclaimthefields.noflag.org.uk
Who are Reclaim the Fields?
Click here to read a history of Reclaim the Fields in Europe
Click here to read a history of Reclaim the Fields in the UK
We are a group of peasants, landless and prospective peasants, as well as people who are taking back control over food production.
We understand “peasants” as people who produce food on a small scale, for themselves or for the community, possibly selling a part of it. This also includes agricultural workers.
We support and encourage people to stay on the land and go back to the countryside. We promote food sovereignty (as defined in the Nyéléni declaration) and peasant agriculture, particularly among young people and urban dwellers, as well as alternative ways of life. In Europe, the concept ‘food sovereignty’ is not very common and could be clarified with ideas such as ‘food autonomy’ and control over food systems by inclusive communities, not only nations or states. We are determined to create alternatives to capitalism through cooperative, collective, autonomous, real-needs-oriented, small-scale production and initiatives. We are putting theory into practice and linking local practical action with global political struggles.
In order to achieve this, we participate in local actions through activist groups and cooperate with existing initiatives. This is why we choose not to be a homogeneous group, but to open up to the diversity of actors fighting the capitalist food production model. We address the issues of access to land, collective farming, seed rights and seed exchange. We strengthen the impact of our work through cooperation with activists who focus on different tasks but who share the same vision.
Nevertheless, our openness has some limits. We are determined to take back control over our lives and refuse any form of authoritarianism and hierarchy. We respect nature and living beings, but will neither accept nor tolerate any form of discrimination, be it based on race, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or social status. We refuse and will actively oppose every form of exploitation of other people. With the same force and energy, we act with kindness and conviviality, making solidarity a concrete practice of our daily life.
We support the struggles and visions of la Via Campesina, and work to strengthen them. We wish to share the knowledge and the experience from years of struggle and peasant life and enrich it with the perspectives and strength of those of us who are not peasants, or not yet peasants. We all suffer the consequences of the same policies, and are all part of the same fight.