Freedom is my nation

πηγή: http://www.crimethinc.com/index.html

The past two weeks have seen a fierce new protest movement in Bosnia, commencing with the destruction of government buildings and continuing with the establishment of popular assemblies. Unlike the recent conflicts in Ukraine, this movement has eschewed nationalistic strife to focus on class issues. In a region infamous for ethnic bloodshed, this offers a more promising direction for the Eastern European uprisings to come.

To gain more insight into the protests, we conducted two interviews. The first is with a participant in Mostar, Bosnia, who describes the events firsthand. The second is with a comrade in a nearby part of the Balkans, who explains the larger context of the movement, evaluating its potential to spread to other parts of the region and to challenge capitalism and the state.

Interview with a Participant

Give us a brief timeline of the important events.

On Wednesday, February 5, workers from several local companies that were destroyed by post-war privatization organized another protest in front of the Cantonal Government Building in Tuzla. Those workers have been protesting peacefully for a decade, organizing strikes and hunger strikes—which were very common in Bosnia until this month—but nobody listened. For just about the first time in post-war Bosnia, young people organized over social networks to express solidarity with desperate workers. Almost 10,000 people supported their protest on Thursday, February 6; that was when the first clashes with the police happened, and the first attempt to enter the government building.

Tuzla, February 5, 2014

On Friday, February 7, more than 10,000 people gathered in the post-industrial city of Tuzla in front of the Cantonal Government building, asking for the Prime Minister’s resignation. The Prime Minister arrogantly refused to resign. None of the officials came out to speak to them, so people broke through the police lines, entered the building, and burned it down.

On the same day, solidarity protests with the workers of Tuzla were organized in almost all the industrial towns of Bosnia. News from Tuzla spread fast; people in Bihać, Sarajevo, Zenica, and Mostar felt that this could be a moment to try to win a change. After the police attacked protesters in Sarajevo, during which some of the people were pushed down and thrown into the river Miljacka, the crowd fought back, forcing back the police and burning down the building of the Cantonal Government, as well as the buildings of the Presidency (including the state flag), the municipality of Sarajevo Center, and several police cars and vans. In Bihać, people attacked the building of the Cantonal Government and smashed it up. The same thing happened in Zenica.

Everyone was anticipating the events in the ethnically divided city of Mostar. More than 4000 people gathered in front of the Cantonal Government, demanding resignations. Soon, the first rocks were thrown, to great applause. From that moment, more and more people were putting t-shirts, balaclavas, masks—whatever they could find—over their faces; without any police resistance, within a few minutes, the building was on fire. Then people went to the City Hall and burned it down, as well as the building of the cantonal Parliament, Mostar Municipality, and the offices of two leading nationalist political parties that have ruled this city since 1991. That made quite a statement.

Protests are still going on, and people have organized themselves in plenums [assemblies]. Four cantonal governments have been forced to resign. Two of them are negotiating with plenums about forming governments of people who are not active members of any political parties. The authorities are fighting back hard—spreading fear of another civil war, arresting people, beating them, pressing charges for terrorism and attack on constitutional order…

Tuzla, February 7, 2014

Who participated? How and why did the protests spread? What limits did they reach?

The participants were from all social groups. Workers, unemployed, pensioners, many young people, demobilized soldiers, activists, football fans, human rights activists, parents with their children…

The people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are the poorest in Europe. Unemployment is over 50%; among young people, it is over 70%. At same time, Bosnian politicians are among the best paid in southeast Europe, and the most corrupt. The healthcare system is the worst in Europe, and social safety nets are almost nonexistent. The society that was one of the most egalitarian in Europe 25 years ago now has a huge social gap.

Capitalism and the process of privatization have completely destroyed the local economy; all the big factories and companies that were saved during the war have been privatized and shut down. All the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few. There is no production in Bosnia any more, only import. The authorities are taking bigger and bigger loans from the IMF, knowing that they have no way of paying them back—so we can expect to be forced to privatize Bosnian Telecom and Electro-energetic system, the last viable pubic companies.

Continue reading →

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIgNvAHIVmw[/youtube]

Protesters opposed to plans to build a new airport for the French city of Nantes smashed shop windows Saturday and hurled paving stones at police, who answered with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Tens of thousands of protesters against building the airport on protected swampland swarmed the western city’s Petite Hollande square, the latest in a string of demonstrations against the pet project of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.

But a short distance away, about 1,000 radical environmentalists staged a more violent protest, smashing shop windows and trashing a post office and the local offices of Vinci, the contractor on the airport project in nearby Notre-Dame-des-Landes.

The eco-warriors pulled up paving stones from the Nantes tramway and threw them at charging police, along with bottles, emergency flares and other projectiles.

Six police were wounded in the clashes and four protesters were arrested, officials said.

The protest comes two months after local officials gave the final go-ahead for preliminary work on the 580-million-euro ($795-million) project, which was approved in 2008.

Construction is due to start this year but has not yet begun, and the target date for opening has been pushed back from 2017 to at least 2019.

The airport is set to have an initial annual capacity of four million passengers.

Πηγή: http://pratelekomunizace.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/maidan-and-its-contradictions-interview-with-a-ukrainian-revolutionary-syndicalist/

For weeks and weeks, we have been looking at Ukrainian events, trying to make sense of what has been happening in Kyiv and other cities. We had read many texts, comments and interviews and discussed about Maidan, but we had been always arriving only at new questions to be answered. Thus, when a possibility occurred to get in touch with Ukrainian comrades one of us tried to use it as best as he could. As a result of that effort and thanks to kindness and patience of Denis from a Kyiv branch of a revolutionary syndicalist group called Autonomous Workers Union the following interview came into existence. Hopefully, it will provide you with many useful insights into the Maidan movement and its context. Continue reading →

Αναδημοσιεύουμε από εδώ μια «έρευνα» σχετικά με το ποια είναι, γιατί εξεγείρονται και τι θέλουν τα άτομα που λαμβάνουν μέρος στις συγκρούσεις με τις δυνάμεις καταστολής στο Κίεβο. Αν και ερασιτεχνική, η «έρευνα» αυτή είναι ενδεικτική της σύνθεσης του κόσμου που συμμετέχει ενεργά στην εξέγερση.

A Sociological Survey With the Purpose of Finding Out Which Social Layers Are the Militant Force of the Modern Revolution in Ukraine?

Introduction

Our assumption has been that in Ukraine we have a revolution combined with counter-revolution. The counterrevolutionaries are the 3 pseudo-leaders – Oleh Tyahnibok of “Svoboda”, Vitaly Kitcko of “Udar” and Arseniy Yatsenuk of “Bat�kivschina”. They struggle with the government of Yanukovich and the Party of Regions for redistribution of the state power, and, hence, redistribution of the former state property (for, you see, in Ukraine and other similar “transitional states”, possession of state power opens the door to grabbing of the state property!). Revolutionaries are those who do not belong to any party, who are by themselves at the barricades and who fight the cops. The official “opposition” and “Maidan” (Maidan refers to the main square in Kiev, Ukraine, where in the winter of 2013-14 there are major anti-government protests and clashes with the police) are two different and even contradictory concepts.

We’re faced with the question: who is the moving force of the revolution in Ukraine today? Who is really manning the barricades and performs other militant functions on the Maidan? To answer these questions we have conducted a sociological survey. We have questioned those who were manning the barricades at the entrance to Maidan from the direction of TsUM (the Central Universal Store, which used to be the main department store in Kiev, located on the main street of the city, Khreschatik). We have surveyed the militants along the Maidan, the guards at the entrance to the Ukrainian House (taken over by the rebels), and especially at the barricades on the Hrushevskogo Street (which was the epicenter of clashes). In the course of one day, 15 February, 2014, we have managed to survey 37 people, while some of the participants have given an extended oral interview, for which I am grateful to them.

We have formulated questions about the education and professional background of the participants. Then we’ve asked the questions about their vision of the situation in Ukraine and what is to be done about it. To be more concrete, we’ve formulated the following 5 questions:

1. Education: 1) didn’t finish school, 2) finished high school, 3) technical 2-year college, 4) incomplete higher education, 5) higher education.

2. What did you do before the Maidan? (type of activity, profession, how did you make a living)

3. What will you do after the Maidan? (What would you like to do? What will you do realistically?)

4. How do you understand the main problems now facing Ukraine? (The main problems of the society).

5. How can these problems be solved? (The ideal final result. The innermost desire for the future of this society). Continue reading →

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nEWVFb7w_Y[/youtube]

Unemployed Macedonians organized protests today in Skopje, in front of the Union of Labor Unions of Macedonia (ULUM) building. During the protests, they chanted “Bosnia,” “Bosnia,” and stated that, should changes not take place, Macedonia will witness a scenario worse than the one in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Anadolia Agency reported.

Several hundred Macedonian citizens were protesting the new legal regulations that affect only a small number of laid-off workers. Protests were supported by leftist organizations such as “Lenka,” and “Solidarnosti.”

Protesters demanded that the union president, Živko Mitrevski, address them, chanting slogans against the ULUM.

The leader of the unions, however, only issued a written statement, which notes that he will protect workers’ rights, and that they are attempting to solve this problem.

There were clashes with the police and protesters in front of the government building and four people were injured. Police also detained one of the organizers of the protest, Ljiljana Gjorgievska, as well as Vasko Cacanovski from “Solidarnosti,” both of whom were later released after Uraniya Pirovska, the president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Macedonia intervened.

Ljiljana Gjorgievska later stated to the press that they live in terrible times

“Our government is not behaving the way we want, but more like the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina or the Ukraine. If they want to pick a fight, next time we will come prepared. We will fight for our rights and they cannot scare us,” Gjorgievska noted.

She also said that they want the Minister of Internal Affairs of Macedonia, Gordana Yankulovska, to resign, adding that the condition they find themselves in is a result of discrimination and abuse of power.

Gjorgievska also invited the representatives of embassies in Macedonia to open the borders of their countries to 6,000 work refugees, unless the Macedonian government manages to solve this problem.

Pirovska added that she will begin an investigation into the events at the protests.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs7R3jQf8yw[/youtube]

Ένας πρόσφυγας που είχε αιτηθεί άσυλο στην Αυστραλία είναι νεκρός, τουλάχιστον ένας ακόμη βρίσκεται σε κρίσιμη κατάσταση και άλλοι 22 νοσηλεύονται στο νοσοκομείο μετά από δύο νύχτες βίαιων ταραχών σε αυστραλιανό υπεράκτιο κέντρο κράτησης μεταναστών στο νησί Μάνους στην Παπούα-Νέα Γουινέα, δήλωσαν αξιωματούχοι την Τρίτη. Ένας από τους τραυματίες με κατάγματα στο κρανίο μεταφέρθηκε ήδη στην Αυστραλία ενώ ένας ακόμη με τραύμα από πυροβολισμό αναμένεται να μεταφερθεί, καθώς η ιατρική κάλυψη στην Παπούα Νέα Γουινέα είναι ελλιπής.
Ο αυστραλός υπουργός Μετανάστευσης Σκοτ Μόρισον, δήλωσε ότι η «είδηση του θανάτου είναι μια μεγάλη τραγωδία», επιβεβαιώνοντας ότι ο νεκρός μετανάστης χτυπήθηκε στο κεφάλι, όταν κρατούμενοι έσπασαν την περίφραξη και επιχείρησαν να φύγουν από το κέντρο αργά τη Δευτέρα.
«Πρόκειται για μια τραγωδία, αλλά ήταν μια πολύ επικίνδυνη κατάσταση, όπου οι άνθρωποι αυτοί αποφάσισαν να διαμαρτυρηθούν με πολύ βίαιο τρόπο και να βγουν έξω από το κέντρο θέτοντας τους εαυτούς τους σε μεγάλο κίνδυνο », είπε ο Μόρισον.
Στα βίαια επεισόδια της Κυριακής τουλάχιστον 19 από τους 1.300 μετανάστες- κρατούμενους στο κέντρο, τραυματίστηκαν και οκτώ συνελήφθησαν. Η εξέγερση των μεταναστών-κρατουμένων ξεκίνησε όταν οι αρχές της Παπούα Νέα Γουινέα, τους ανακοίνωσαν ότι έχουν δυο επιλογές. «Ή να παραμείνουν στο έδαφος της χώρας ή να επιστρέψουν στην πατρίδα τους» καθώς η συντριπτική τους πλειοψηφία προέρχεται από την Ινδονησία. «Δεν υπάρχει η επιλογή μιας τρίτης χώρας» τους ανακοινώθηκε εννοώντας προφανώς ότι δεν μπορούν να μεταβούν στην Αυστραλία που είναι και ο βασικός στόχος όλων των μεταναστών.
Το νησί Μάνους είναι ένα από τα δύο υπεράκτια κέντρα κράτησης μεταναστών και έχει σχεδιαστεί για να στεγάσει όσους φτάνουν παράνομα στην Αυστραλία από την Ινδονησία . Το Ναουρού φιλοξενεί το άλλο κέντρο. Τα περισσότερα από τα κτίρια στο κέντρο στο Ναούρου καταστράφηκαν σε μια άλλη εξέγερση τον Ιούλιο. « Το κέντρο δεν έχει καταστραφεί» είπε επίσης ο αυστραλός υπουργός Μετανάστευσης επισημαίνοντας ότι λειτουργεί κανονικά.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4W75cvxJUo[/youtube]

Τέταρτη νύχτα ταραχών και διαδηλώσεων κατά του προέδρου Μαδούρο και της κυβέρνησης του, έζησε η Βενεζουέλα.

Η αστυνομία προχώρησε σε ρίψεις νερού προκειμένου να διαλύσει το συγκεντρωμένο πλήθος, που επιχειρούσε να αποκλείσει με οδοφράγματα κεντρικούς δρόμους της πρωτεύουσας Καράκας.

Οι διαδηλώσεις ξεκίνησαν ως ένα κύμα διαμαρτυρίας κυρίως νεαρών φοιτητών για την οικονομική εξαθλίωση, την έλλειψη βασικών αγαθών και την διαρκώς αυξανόμενη εγκληματικότητα που μαστίζει την χώρα.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuSiQhjnrMQ[/youtube]

Police in Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, have fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of stone-hurling antigovernment demonstrators.

The protesters were demanding the resignation of the government of long-serving Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

They accuse his government of rampant corruption and unemployment and economic mismanagement.

Several policemen and demonstrators were injured and at least 10 protesters were detained in the February 15 violence.

The protest, organized on social media, is voicing solidarity with Bosnian antigovernment demonstrators who earlier this month stormed into the country’s presidency and other government buildings in Sarajevo and set them ablaze .