Anarchoblogs

*The following scenes are from an attack on antifascist football fans from FC Karelien carried out by right wing and fascist hooligans in Russia last weekend. Its really difficult to watch „your side“ get beaten so badly, and the footage really left us all here with a very tight knot in our stomach. In all honesty, we can be thankful that, for some reason, the Nazis seem to be perfectly happy still hitting people with the chairs, even though a lot more damage could have been done.
The other question we all had to ask ourselves watching the footage…it isnt precisely news that fascists in Russia are dangerous. Why do the antifascist fans seem so terribly unprepared for a possible confrontation?

You can read an account of the incident (in German), as well as of another similar if not worse attack in the Ukraine on the same weekend here. Images of the attack as well.

In order to not end on such a bad note, here is some nice footage from the „nostalgia vault.“ This is from 2001 or 2002 in Peoria, IL. It was primarily the work of the very effective Chicago area ARA, and from the time when US cops still hadnt really understood that they should separate Nazis and antifascists *before* we fought each other. This allowed for some glorious victories, such as this one, Wallingford on the east coast, and finally the near historic routing of the Nazis in York, PA in 2002. After that, it started getting much more difficult to get to them.

*The Chilean police carried out a broad wave of raids against anarchist militants, raiding 17 houses and arresting 14 people. The raids and arrests are in connection with a series of bomb attacks against state institutions. Proceedings against the arrested comrades have already begun, and the details of the situation can be read here in English and a very summarized account here in German.

There is apparently even a German connection to this wave of repression, as the Chilean security forces have asked the BND for information on possible German fundraisers of the alleged group.

And finally, for the weekend: Didnt make it in time, and apparently the demonstration was cancelled because the Nazi who registered it was too drunk to be accepted as a liason by the cops.

The man having lived to the age of 90, this is therefore not exactly „sad“ news. But still, he will be missed.
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One of the last personalities of the anarchist movement from the 1940s and ’50s has left us with the death of Georges Fontenis in Tours on 9th August 2010 at the age of 90. He will remain in the memory of the workers‘ movement as an untiring fighter for libertarian communism, a supporter of the Algerian independists, a syndicalist with the École Émancipée, one of the leading figures of May 1968 in Tours and a pillar of the Freethought movement and in particular the Indre-et-Loire branch of the Libre-Pensée federation. Until the very end he was also a member of Alternative Libertaire.

Born into a modest working-class family in the Parisian suburb of Lilas, Georges Fontenis became an active anarchist militant as a result of June 1936 and the enthusiasm over the Spanish Revolution. A member of the clandestine CGT under the Occupation, this young teacher in the 19th arrondissement of Paris was to become, after the Liberation, one of the most outspoken militants of the Fédération Anarchiste (FA). In 1946 he was elected general secretary of that organization and became a pole of resistance to the Stalinist hegemony in the workers‘ movement of the time.

In 1946-50, Georges Fontenis, who was very close to the exiled Spaniards of the CNT-FAI, was one of the promoters of the French CNT (CNT-F), an alternative to the Stalinized CGT and the atlanticist CGT-FO. After the collapse of the CNT-F in 1950, he joined the Fédération de l’Éducation nationale (FEN) and was active within its revolutionary syndicalist tendency, the École Émancipée.

Georges Fontenis went on to become one of the leading players in the struggles which affected the anarchist organization in 1951-53 and which led to the FA changing into the Fédération Communiste Libertaire (FCL). This would leave him with a badly damaged reputation. He later explained everything in his memoirs, first published in 1990. Republished in 2008 by Alternative Libertaire under the title „Changer le monde“ (Changing the world), these memoirs constitute a vital font of information for historians of anarchism, but also a political appraisal of this period, one that is not entirely free of self-criticism.

At the outbreak of the Algerian insurrection of Toussaint Rouge in 1954, the FCL dedicated itself to supporting the independentists and Georges Fontenis together with his comrades established one of the largest networks of „couriers“. But it was not its covert actions which were responsible for the FCL being dismantled by the forces of repression, it was its open propaganda. Arrested for questioning by the intelligence services (DST) after several months on the run, Georges Fontenis spent almost a year in prison and was finally banned from teaching within the state schools system in the Paris region. This period was the subject of a documentary in 2001, called „Une résistance oubliée (1954-1957), des libertaires dans la guerre d’Algérie“ (A forgotten resistance: libertarians in the Algerian War).

After his release, Fontenis moved to the Tours region, which he was never to leave. The FCL was destroyed, but he continued nonetheless with his activities in the support network for Algerian independence.

He was again called to play a role in May-June 1968, as one of the leaders of the Tours Comité d’Action Révolutionnaire. In the aftermath, he tried to launch the Libertarian Communist Movement (MCL – Mouvement Communiste Libertaire), strongly tinged with councilism, but was unsuccessful. In 1980, he joined the Union des Travailleurs Communistes Libertaires (UTCL) and its successor organization, Alternative Libertaire.

The life of Georges Fontenis was for decades linked to the labour movement and its libertarian current. He shared its progress, its setbacks and its impassioned struggles. As a political activist, he could draw lessons from failures without giving in to discouragement. But the path of Georges Fontenis was also a personal journey. Shaped by anarchism, he wanted to transform it in a profound way. For this he was sharply criticized by some and viewed by others in France and elsewhere, as a reference point. But does his assessment for all that form a single block, which we must either take or leave? Not at all. But Alternative Libertaire and indeed the International Libertarian Communist movement know what they owe to him, and it is for this reason that we honour a man who now belongs to History.

The activists who worked alongside him in his struggles will long hold the memory of a warm, jovial comrade with the gift of humour and great insight. And this was the image of himself that he left us with in the documentary on him which was made in 2008, „Georges Fontenis, parcours libertaire“.

AL assures its solidarity with his wife Marie-Louise and her family at this painful time. The monthly „Alternative Libertaire“ will dedicate a special edition to George Fontenis in September. We are also considering organizing a public event in his memory to be held in the autumn, probably in Tours.

Alternative Libertaire
10 August 2010

Translation by FdCA-International Relations Office

COMMUNE A certain kind of perspective on [the terrible community] has to be taken up, a “thief’s gaze,” which from the interior of the apparatus materializes the possibility of escaping it. Sharing this gaze, the most lively bodies will bring about that which the terrible community, even in spite of itself, blindly exudes: its own [...]

A Post-Sentencing Statement From Dave Solidarity     On June 1, I was sentenced to a 1 month stay in a Federal Prison, starting June 22nd, after being convicted of a ‘violation of the terms of my supervised release.’ To give a l…

Continue reading at The LA Anarchist Weekly …

The following article was posted by BBC world news at 04:34 GMT, Saturday, 20 March 2010

It was the second blast police responded to in as many days

A bomb has exploded outside the home of a Pakistani community leader in the Greek capital Athens – the second blast in the area in less than 24 hours.

Police said there were no injuries, but some damage was done to the entrance of the apartment building and three cars.

On Friday, a bomb damaged the office of a far-right anti-immigration group.

No group has said it carried out the attacks, but there have been numerous bombings attributed to far-left or anarchist groups in recent years.

Recent attacks have targeted banks and government buildings.

Greece has faced severe anti-government protests and rioting since police shot dead a teenager in December 2008.

Completely ignoring the fact that bomb attacks are going on for a moment, let me just take the time to point a few inaccuracies and shady imputations in the above article.

Firstly, I’d like to point out the use of the sanitised description of the Golden Dawn as ‘a far-right anti-immigration group.’  For a start, any one who has read my blog in the past will know that the Golden Dawn is an ultra-nationalist fascist organisation that routinely attacks immigrants, Anarchists, and individuals in general opposition to their platform.  They are notoriously violent and have been known to have murdered people in the street for throwing away their pamphlets.

Second, the following paragraph mentions that so far no group as claimed responsibility for the attacks, but oh so politely mentions that far-left and Anarchist (read: murdering, rapist, baby-snatching, shit crazy Anarchist thugs) have carried out ‘numerous‘ bombings in recent years.  This is a technique that triggers the reader to jump to a conclusion, or, ‘fill in the blanks’; it positively must have been those satanic Anarchists attacking the Pakistani community leaders house.  Never mind that the far greater likelihood is that those who attacked the Pakistani community leader’s house are the un-named Golden Dawn carrying out reprisals.

Thirdly, the use of the phrase ‘police shot dead a teenager’ is ambiguous.  Sure, its background information, but it doesn’t provide the context; two police officers murdered a teenage boy.  Yeah, that’s no reason for those silly Greek peasants to be angry.

UPDATE: Taxikapeli, reporting on LibCom.org writes,

The bomb attacks come after more than a month of a lull by urban guerrilla groups which has launched a winter offensive during December and January. It must be noticed that the small bomb that hit the house of the vice-president of the Pakistani community yesterday is widely considered to be related to the Pakistani secret services (due to the fact that it has been proceeded by the assassination of an embassy official of Pakistan) and not to domestic armed struggle.

• L.A. Anarchist Bookfair: Actions + Conversations + Intersections 2010. Guy Debord, Los Angeles Anarchist (2010-01-16). L.A. Anarchist Bookfair: Actions + Conversations + Intersections 2010 Sunday January 24th : : Barnsdall Art Park 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027 http://www.anarchistbookfair.com/ (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Invictus (Clint Eastwood, 2009) Guest Contributor, Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture (2010-01-11). by Guest Contributor Geo, originally published at Prometheus Brown Morgan Freeman: the kind of black dude even an old white racist can’t hate. Which is why he was cast to drive Miss Daisy, free a man from prison, become president (twice), help Batman, and become the literal, physical embodiment of... (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Blame the Libertarians! Radley Balko, The Agitator (2010-01-11). Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Peyton Thomas has emerged as Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s book-learnin’ alter-ego, working with Arpaio to criminally investigate, indict, and otherwise legally intimidate anyone who dares to question the fearless lawman (as well as, now, anyone who dares to question Thomas). Thomas has gone after members of the... (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• BOSTON COPS ABUSE THOSE TAKING PIX OF THEM. UNDERNEWS (2010-01-18). The War on Photography (Cont'd.) (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Creatures from the Conservative Id. Pro Libertate (2010-01-18). Dick Cheney and the triumph of enthusiastic sado-statism. [Trigger warning: the second half of this story includes graphic descriptions of torture and a photograph of its aftereffects.] (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Another Brick in the Wall. Mises Institute Daily Articles (Full-text version) (2010-01-14). [Originally published as "Song that's driving teachers up the wall" in Libertarian Review, Vol. 9, No. 9 (September 1980), pp. 42–43.] The British Band, Pink Floyd's song, "Another Brick in the Wall" has been banned in South Africa, ignored by some radio stations in the United States, and attacked by... (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Eminent Domain Abuse: What Would Homer Simpson Do? Division of Labour (2010-01-18). Resistance to Ratner in NYC (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• A Matter of Degree: The New York Subway. Mises Institute Daily Articles (Full-text version) (2010-01-11). [From chapter 14 of The Rise and Fall of Society by Frank Chodorov.] The small State can do to Society everything the large State can do, but not so much of it. The tyranny and terrorism of modern communistic overlords is of a kind with the practices of ancient Sparta,... (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Warwick Township Cop Assaults, Kidnaps and Imprisons Me Over My Request for Business Card. Arm your Mind for Liberty (2010-01-18). Gansters in Blue arrest George Donnelly for speaking when not spoken to. (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)
• Mises.org joins the fight for liberty online. David Veksler, Mises Economics Blog (2010-01-16). You may have heard that Google's decided to stop censoring results from its Chinese search engine. After China attempted to access the email accounts of human rights activists, Google also decided to encrypt all Gmail traffic by default. The team behind Mises.org is also contributing to the effort to keep... (Linked Monday 2010-01-18.)