Write letters to anarchist and anti-fascist prisoners of Moscow!

Kharchenko Igor Olegovich
FKU SIZO-2 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve
ul. Novoslobodskaya d. 45
127055 Moskva Russia

Igor was arrested in September 2011. He is accused of having participated in a fight on the 4th of July 2010, during which the audience of a punk hardcore concert dispersed a band of nationalists, who had come in order to kill and maim concert guests.

Igor, however, did not take part in the fight – plenty of those present at the concert have given testimony, that during the fight Igor was performing in the concert. The whole case against Igor relies exclusively on the testimony of failed “race warriors”, V. Sumin and V. Zhidousouv.

The true reason for the arrest of Kharchenko is an attempt by Moscow investigators to take revenge on their failure to jail anyone for the action by anti-fascists against the Khimki city administration on the 28th of July 2010.

Igor’s co-accused is Denis Solopov, one of the “Khimki hostages”, who has received refugee status in Western Europe after UNCHR recognised, that the police investigation on the Khimki case was carried out with various violations,  for example confessions gained through use of torture.

Moscow investigators ignored the fact, that during this fight Solopov was in Turkey, which is confirmed by the stamps in his passport, and plenty of eye-witnesses.

The investigation also attempts to indict Kharchenko for “organising of an extremist community,” according to statute 282.1 of the Russian criminal codex.

More on the case against Kharchenko:
http://avtonom.org/en/people/igor-kharchenko

Butyrka prison has also a form, which you may use in order to send letters:
http://wr1.fsin-service.ru/Letter-Client/main.html#new_letter
However, this form is only in Russian and paying for the service (minimal payment is around 1.20 euros) requires either a Russian bank account or account in some internet payment system, common in Russia (such as yandex.dengi or webmoney). In form, you must indicate year of birth of Kharchenkio – 1991.

Sutuga Alexey Vladimirovich
FKU SIZO-2 UFSIN Rossii po g. Moskve
ul. Novoslobodskaya d. 45
127055 Moskva Russia

Alexey Sutuga has been a member of Autonomous Action since the early 2000s. He was first active in Irkutsk and then in Moscow. He participated in every single major campaign of the anarchist movement in the past ten years, and supported the journal Avtonom.

In 2007, he joined the ecological protest camp against uranium enrichment in city of Angarsk in Siberia, which was assaulted by nationalists in the early morning hours. Ilya Borodaenko from Nahodka of Pacific Ocean was murdered there, and a number of other visitors of the camp were seriously wounded.

Alexey was arrested on the evening of 17th of April, and has been in remand prison since then. He, together with Alexey Olesinov, is accused of having taken part in an incident in the Moscow club “Vozdukh”, where on 17th of December, during a punk-hardcore concert, a conflict between the audience and the security took place.

The club security, consisted of supporters of the far right, and were provoking guests. Due to the conflict, the concert was stopped prematurely, but the security attempted to take some guests hostage, threatening them with punishment from their friends – nationalist football hooligans. Concert guests resisted, the security opened fire with rubber coated metal bullets, but soon the concert-goers gained the upper hand and the security was neutralised and sent to the hospital.

More on the case of the Moscow prisoners: http://avtonom.org/en/mda

The Butyrka prison also has a form which can be used in order to send letters:
http://wr1.fsin-service.ru/Letter-Client/main.html#new_letter
However, this form is only in Russian and paying for this service (minimal payment is around 1.20 euros) requires either a Russian bank account or an account with some internet payment system, common in Russia  (such as yandex.dengi or webmoney). In the form, you must indicate year of birth of Sutuga – – 1986.

Full list of prisoners in former Soviet Union by Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow:

http://wiki.avtonom.org/en/index.php/Category:Prisoners_in_former_Soviet_Union

source

Fascists confronted in Lisbon, Portugal

On January 21st, a demo against unemployment, austerity measures and the government in Lisbon, Portugal was infiltrated by a small group of fascists.

“It didnt go well for them as anarchists, antifascists and Anonymous confronted them, and then, to our surprise, old people, many of them old enough to have lived through the fascist regime joined in insulting and even kicking the fascists.
In the end they got their flags burned, they kept two flags with their blood wich they now call ‘sacred’ because they have blood shed in the fight for Portugal. ”

 

Swedish Anti-Fascist speaking in UK & Ireland

Our comrades in Anti-Fascist Action Ireland are hosting a speaking tour by veteran Swedish anti-fascist, Paul Hull. Whilst most of the dates are over in Ireland, you can see Paul speak at the London Anarchist Bookfair on Saturday 22nd October. On the 20th October, Nick Griffin of the British National Party is due to speak at Trinity College in Dublin. We wish our comrades the best of luck with whatever they do that day and with the rest of the speaking tour. See the poster below for more information.

EDL fail in Tower Hamlets

They came. They saw. They failed. And now they’re coming up with the usual bullshit to save face…

Saturday saw the long awaited EDL outing to London. For them, it was nothing short of a failure. Despite planning this one for months and claiming it was to be ‘the big one,’ they only managed to muster around 1,000 infidel, ray gun fighting warriors. Many groups struggled to fill coaches and some bottled it all together.

Locally they were poorly represented- the only group to turn up from the area were the Bristol & Gloucestershire division.

The Hereford EDL ‘division’ (if it can be called that) failed to get anybody there at all. Sad act and self-appointed leader, Darren Poland, has been doing his nut on Facebook since. He’s now calling for an ‘emergency meeting’ this coming weekend. We doubt its worth the effort mate, you’ll only end up getting two of you along like the last one.

The Worcester division were quiet for this one as well…London is a bit further from home than Telford is after all. Too much effort, Dave?

Before the day even arrived the EDL were finding it hard; members were left confused after the ban and were relying on the leadership to put the plans on the internet the night before. Pubs that were due to be hosting them pulled out one after another, following pressure from anti-fascist campaigners. The night before, RMT activists threatened to close the tube stations where the EDL were meant to gather, adding a further headache to their plans.

On the morning of the 3^rd, RMT activists followed through with their plans and offered some great practical solidarity to anti-fascists. Tube stations were closed, and emergency alarms in stations and trains were set off, leaving some groups of EDL stranded in various parts of London, delayed from getting to their meeting points.

The usual mixture of unions, left-wing organisations, community and faith groups assembled on Whitechapel Road throughout the morning and early afternoon, bulked up by large groups of locals. We have to admit that this was also a pretty poor turnout, with only around 1,500 on the streets. However, larger numbers of locals were also in surrounding areas, awaiting the arrival of the EDL…

But they never came. The closest they got to the ‘lions den of militant Islam,’ (Tower Hamlets) was Aldgate tube station. They could do with touching up on their local geography though, because that’s in the City of London. Doh!

Groups of militant anti-fascists and anarchists, as well as large groups of local youth made spirited efforts to reach the EDL all day. Whilst this wasn’t possible due to the area resembling a police state, it was very encouraging to see links made between them, and a lot of people seeking to confront the EDL and not simply being led by the UAF and their ‘official’ counter demonstration.

So after pulling around 1,000 troops and managing to get as close as they would to their intended destination, the usual spectacle began. They chanted three letters over and over. Out came the beer bellies and shit tattoos. Scuffles began and a few arrests were made.

Then Steven Lennon took to the stage. Disguised as a Rabbi, he gave a speech. He was also breaking his bail conditions, which he publicly stated, goading police officers to arrest him. He was surprised when they did. He’s currently on ‘hunger strike’ in police custody. This situation will have one of two conclusions; this noble freedom fighter will fast until death, putting his beliefs first and giving his life to the cause. Or he will fail miserably and be back on the chips and pies diet before you can say ‘you fat bastard.’ As much as the former would be a fun spectacle, we think it’s likely to be the second option that comes through.

And after all of that, they finally got their march… back to their coaches via Tower Bridge.

Shortly afterwards a group of locals gave a heartfelt ‘farewell’ message to some EDL members. In a move of sheer idiocy, a coach full of the numpties made its way down Whitechapel Road, with it’s occupants goading local young muslims. Within seconds the mob charged and the coach came under sustained artillery fire, with its oh-so-brave occupants now cowering inside. The bus was left with some new ventilation, and the 40 EDL members inside left with their tails between their legs, behind the protection of about 200 police officers in full riot gear, who rushed to their rescue.

To top the day off nicely, hacking group ‘Team Poison’ kindly released dozens of phone numbers, internal emails and forum usernames/passwords for a load of EDL members, including some of the leadership. Bostin!

The response since to the 3^rd has been almost as interesting as the day itself. The EDL haven’t even released an official statement or report on the day yet, with a few comments on Facebook apparently enough to keep the rabble happy. ‘EDL 1 – Tower Hamlets 0’ they claimed. A strange choice of words we feel, after all they were going there to oppose militant Islam, and highlight the problems of sexism and homophobia in the area, right? Evidently not, they’ve declared the entire borough and it’s population as their enemy… This façade really is wearing thin now guys! I doubt even the blindest of EDL supporters will follow this line without question for much longer.

The illiterate fools over at the Casuals United blog have an interesting take on the day too. According to them the day was a ‘massive victory’ for the EDL, with us ‘Commies’ in despair over the low turnout on the counter demonstration. The tools behind Redwatch have also made us chuckle. They’ve put up a couple of pictures of an anti-fascist block on a Gaza solidarity demo in 2009 and claimed they’re from Saturday… Silly twats.

So to round off; they didn’t have the march through Tower Hamlets that they wanted, they had a shit turnout, their leader got arrested and a bunch of them went home with stained pants and their tails between their legs. And they consider this a ‘massive victory.’ As they try to keep grassroots support and hold the image of the organisation together, they are reliant on half-truths, misinformation and outright lies. We can only wonder how long they can keep this going…but until then, lets “paint some white sheets” for our brave martyr Tommy, as they have cleverly suggested.

3CAFA would like to thank ALARM and the other anti-fascists we met on the weekend, for the hospitality and all of the great work they did both beforehand and on the day itself. We look forward to working with you again in the future. Until next time…

‘No fucking sandwiches ever’

3 Counties Anti-Fascist Alliance