(en) Show your ass to the authorities: call for solidarity with Belarusian anarchists by ABC

The forth presidential term of Alexander Lukashenko will expire in 2015. In 21 years 
Lukashenko has managed to suppress almost all social struggles in the country, kill 
several political opponents in the 90s, and eradicate nearly all of the official 
opposition. Lukashenko didn?t allow Belarusian society to transcend the limits of Soviet 
mentality. Any complaint or criticism of the government are met with repression from the 
police or the KGB. Any attempts of organizing face with prosecution and hysteria from the 
state. The policy of the government can be described simply as follows: ?Everything that 
cannot be controlled must be destroyed?. At this moment Belarusian state is slowly but 
steadily getting to the extermination of any dissent or independent thinking. ---- With 
the elections planned for November this year the pressure on social movements is 
increasing. Authorities are afraid of the Ukrainian scenario occuring in Belarus and do 
everything to fight ?extremists?: all the people who are calling for the change of the 
current regime.

Over the last two months 10 people connected with the anarchist movement have been 
arrested. Eight of them got from 10 to 25 days of arrest based on made-up cases of 
resistance to the police and minor hooliganism. Two of them were already arrested before 
in December and spend 5 and 10 days in prison and later were fired from work. This time 
they were arrested a couple of days after they had found a new job. Activists connect 
repressions with several solidarity actions against police brutality at a New Year punk 
concert. Police raided the concert, made a list of all the participants and filmed them. 
Two people were arrested at the concert for distribution of ?extremist? materials. After 
that all the people listed at the concert started receiving visits from the police who 
brought official notices demanding people to stop their ?extremist? activity. There are 
also frequent threats in social networks coming from people obviously connected with the 
police.

In November 2014 the prison authorities started another criminal case against Mikalai 
Dziadok, who is serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence in prison after repressions of 
2010. This time he is accused of severe violations of prison rules. During the four years 
in prison Mikalai was many times in solitary confinement as the authorities were trying to 
pressure him and break his spirit. Now Mikalai, who was to be released in March this year, 
is facing charges that can keep him in prison for one more year. Relatives and friends 
have no doubts about the court ruling as the same tactic had been used against one of the 
conservative opposition activists. Thus the government will be able to keep Mikalai in 
prison during the upcoming elections.

Moreover, anarchist Ihar Alinevich, who is serving an 8-year prison sentence for a 
solidarity action with Russian antifascists, was once again thrown into a punishement cell 
? the fifth time in the last 4 months.

During the electoral campaign in 2010 dozens of anarchists and later also opposition 
activists went through detentions and arrests. Over 50 people ended up in prison for 
political charged including five anarchists. Three of them are still incarcerated. No 
doubts that the government is getting ready and will try to silence any dissent by all the 
means. These days most of us expect only a higher level of repression.

Therefore we appeal to everybody who is reading this to take to the streets in the period 
from February 25 to March 1 and make solidarity actions with anarchists and social 
activists of Belarus in their struggle for a just world and against the dictatorship. It 
is up to you to decide the form of the actions, but we can only point out that the two 
solidarity actions in Minsk, where people exposed their bottoms, caused vivid interest in 
society and high feaver among the police. That?s why we think that it?s time to show your 
ass to the authorities and take posession of your life.

For a free society
Against dictatorship and oppression
Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

Related Link: https://abc-belarus.org/?page_id=5738&lang=en

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/27877