Today's Topics:
1. wsm.ie: Trans Pride 2019 in Dublin (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. al bruxelles, Greece: Exarcheia and Rouvikonas in the sights
of the new Conservative government By Yannis Youlountas (fr, it,
pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. MEDIA, Anarchists Fill Services Void Left by Faltering Greek
Governance (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. avtonom: "They, despite everything, go against the stream":
Svetlana Sidorkina on the protection of activists [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Poland, Workers Initiative: Trade unions in Palestine and
Israel [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
Around a thousand people took part in the second Dublin Transgender Pride Parade last
Saturday, July 6. This is almost double the number that marched last year. Upon assembling
at Parnell Square the colourful procession made it's way down O' Connell Street, through
Eden Quay, Customs House Quay and Lombard Street, before arriving at it's destination of
Merrion Square. It was watched by crowds of onlookers who offered encouragement and
support in the form of cheering and applause.[video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqeG3Agyevg ---- The parade participants bore flags and
banners displaying slogans such as 'Trans rights are human rights', 'I'm marching for my
trans friends who aren't out', and 'T.E.R.F.-free zone'. The acronym 'T.E.R.F.' refers to
Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, a group who claim transgender women aren't actually
women.
According to some of the parade's organizers Saturday's event was intended to bring
attention to some of the forms of discrimination that transgender individuals in Ireland
are forced to endure. These include having to wait for three years or longer to access
hormone treatment, the absence of any surgical treatment in Ireland, and an increasing
number of attacks on transgender individuals.
Thomas White, one of the organizers, said in an interview with the Irish Times that
'trangender people face challenges that gay, lesbian, and bi people don't. Being
transgender goes much further against what society determines to be acceptable'.
The Dublin LGBTQ Pride website, which advertised the parade, states that 'neither sex or
gender is binary. They both exist on a spectrum and we want to make that known. The
societal expectations that the gender binary enforces act like a prison for all of us, not
just gender non-conforming poeple, trapping us in outdated and often sexist gender roles
which we are punished for breaking away from. Rigid gender roles have no place in the
progressive society that we need to create if we want trans liberation'.
Judging from the number of participants as compared to last years' parade, and from the
enthusiastic support of onlookers, this years' parade was a great success.
https://wsm.ie/c/trans-pride-2019-dublin-july
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Message: 2
The countdown is approaching the end, in the center of Athens, for anarchists,
self-managers, migrants and solidarity. ---- The police operation "law and order" against
Exarcheia and Rouvikonas would be ready to be launched. ---- According to the new minister
of public order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, and the deputy minister in charge of penal and
penitentiary policy, Lefteris Economou, the state plan would be ready to attack the rebel
district of Athens. ---- A huge police apparatus is being prepared, with MATs (CRS), DIAS
voltigeurs, intelligence agents, anti-terrorist teams and other units. ---- The new prime
minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, absolutely wants his mandate to begin by striking a big
blow, as soon as possible, against "the" anarchists and "hooded" allegedly responsible for
drug trafficking and arms trafficking in the capital. "The migrants" would also be
responsible for this doglit, according to the TV channels, more precisely "employed by the
antiauthoritarians" in a kind of "libertarian mafia and international downtown".
In short, a very big paranoid in all the media at the boot to justify the imminent
offensive of the Greek state against one of the few strongholds of self-management in
Europe. A district of Exarcheia that "gives very bad ideas elsewhere, for too long",
especially in its resistance against police incursions.
The new government has announced the imminent evacuation of all occupied places,
regardless of the purpose of the squat, in the entire neighborhood, and numerous searches
to search for drugs, weapons and other equipment used in struggles.
The chief police chiefs say they are ready to intervene and some of their subordinates
have even made the buzz on Facebook by announcing their joy to go to break the anar and
the migrant.
The government is also fond of the idea of classifying Rouvikonas as a terrorist
organization, something its predecessors renounced a year ago. "Permanently preventing
Rouvikonas from harm is the prime minister's priority," his spokesman said. The K * Vox,
instead Exarcheia, is more than others in the sights of this operation that should start
one of the next morning at dawn.
It's hard to say exactly when or how things will unfold, but we expect a lot of violence
from the CRS, eager to get revenge on this neighborhood they hate for a long time, and
against the members of the movement which are there.
What is certain is that Exarcheia will not let it go and, above all, that it will be more
difficult to maintain control of the neighborhood for the long term than to return to it.
I will not say more here.
Thank you for your support wherever it comes from: it must be said that once again a state
wants to subdue a zone of resistance, a laboratory of autonomy, self-management and
libertarian experiences, but also a great alternative of welcome to the squalid refugee
camps. To put it another way, once again, the power wants to make the utopia disappear so
as not to disappear itself.
Sooner or later it will be power or us. Freedom or death. Because capitalism and
authoritarian society lead us to a stalemate in every respect. Either this deadly society
will continue to destroy the world, or we will sooner or later release us, save life, try
something else.
Of course, the next few days will be difficult and perhaps even tragic. Among the many
policemen who will come to hunt us, hit us, stop us, in the labyrinth of the neighborhood
and its shadows, there will be neo-Nazis and other fascist vermin impatient to make us
suffer, to take revenge for the fall of Golden Dawn, and simply to break the leftist, the
migrant, the anarchist. But we are not afraid.
We are not afraid of the present because we are already tomorrow. We carry another way of
living together in our heads and in our hearts, a world free from the horrors that
disfigure it, a life without tyrant and valet. We do not resist for Exarcheia, but for
everyone: for one day, others that we manage to get out of the political prehistory of
humanity.
https://albruxelles.wordpress.com/2019/07/10/grece-exarcheia-et-rouvikonas-dans-le-viseur-du-nouveau-gouvernement-conservateur/
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Message: 3
Image: A Greek anarcho-communist, right, with Syrian children in an abandoned school that
was occupied by anarchist groups and is now a home for refugees in Athens. ---- ATHENS -
It may seem paradoxical, but Greece's anarchists are organizing like never before. ----
Seven years of austerity policies and a more recent refugee crisis have left the
government with fewer and fewer resources, offering citizens less and less. Many have lost
faith. Some who never had faith in the first place are taking matters into their own
hands, to the chagrin of the authorities. ---- Tasos Sagris, a 45-year-old member of the
Greek anarchist group Void Network and of the "self-organized" Embros theater group, has
been at the forefront of a resurgence of social activism that is effectively filling a
void in governance.
"People trust us because we don't use the people as customers or voters," Mr. Sagris said.
"Every failure of the system proves the idea of the anarchists to be true."
"People trust us because we don't use the people as customers or voters," said Tasos
Sagris, a member of the Greek anarchist group Void Network and the "self-organized" Embros
theater.
These days that idea is not only about chaos and tearing down the institutions of the
state and society - the country's long, grinding economic crisis has taken care of much of
that - but also about unfiltered self-help and citizen action.
Yet the movement remains disparate, with some parts emphasizing the need for social
activism and others prioritizing a struggle against authority with acts of vandalism and
street battles with the police. Some are seeking to combine both.
Whatever the means, since 2008 scores of "self-managing social centers" have mushroomed
across Greece, financed by private donations and the proceeds from regularly scheduled
concerts, exhibitions and on-site bars, most of which are open to the public. There are
now around 250 nationwide.
Some activists have focused on food and medicine handouts as poverty has deepened and
public services have collapsed.
In recent months, anarchists and leftist groups have trained special energy on housing
refugees who flooded into Greece in 2015 and who have been bottled up in the country since
the European Union and Balkan nations tightened their borders. Some 3,000 of these
refugees now live in 15 abandoned buildings that have been taken over by anarchists in the
capital.
The burst of citizen action is just the latest chapter in a long history for the anarchist
movement in Greece.
Anarchists played an active role in the student uprisings that helped bring down Greece's
dictatorship in the mid-1970s, including a rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic in November
1973, which authorities crushed with police officers and tanks, resulting in several deaths.
Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, anarchists have joined leftist groups in occupying
portions of Greek universities to promote their thinking and lifestyle; many of those
occupied spaces exist today, and some are used as bases by anarchists to fashion the crude
firebombs hurled at the police during street protests.
Over the years, anarchists have also backed a spectrum of causes, such as opposing
"neoliberal" education reform or campaigning against the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
The movement continues to be largely tolerated by the public at large, reflecting a deep
distrust of authority among Greeks that has been stoked in recent years by the austerity
measures imposed on the debt-racked country by international creditors.
In Athens, the anarchists' epicenter remains the bohemian neighborhood of Exarchia, where
the killing of a teenager by a police officer in 2008 set off two weeks of rioting, helped
reinvigorate the movement and produced several guerrilla groups that led to a revival of
domestic terrorism in Greece.
The police and the authorities tread lightly in the area.
The police have recently raided some buildings illegally occupied by anarchists, called
squats, in Athens, in the northern city of Thessaloniki and on the island of Lesbos, a
gateway for hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past two years. But the authorities
have stopped short of a blanket crackdown, which would be difficult for the leftist Syriza
party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to condone.
In an interview, Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas said that the police sweeps were
"systematic," and that the raids were being carried out "where they are needed."
The mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, condemned the squats, saying they have compromised
"the quality of life of the refugees."
"No one knows who they are controlled by and what conditions people being put up in
occupied buildings live in," he said in a response to a reporter's questions.
The anarchists say their squats are a humane alternative to the state-run camps now filled
with more than 60,000 migrants and asylum seekers. Human rights groups have broadly
condemned the camps as squalid and unsafe.
In Exarchia, one of the squats includes a former state secondary school that was abandoned
because of structural problems. Established last spring with the help of anarchists, the
squat is now home to some 250 refugees, mostly from Syria, who have set up a chicken coop
on the roof. Many more refugees are on a "waiting list" for other occupied buildings.
The squats function as self-organized communities, independent from the state and
nongovernmental organizations, said Lauren Lapidge, 28, a British social activist who came
to Greece in 2015 at the peak of the refugee crisis and is actively involved with several
occupied buildings.
"They are living organisms: Kids go to school, some were born in the squat, we've had
weddings inside," she said.
Another initiative in Exarchia involves anarchists and local residents who have moved a
cargo container into the neighborhood's central square, calling it a political kiosk, from
which they distribute food and medicine and sell anarchist literature.
Vassiliki Spathara is part of a group of anarchists who set up a cargo container in the
main square of Exarchia, dubbing it a political kiosk.CreditEirini Vourloumis for The New
York Times
Vassiliki Spathara, 49, a painter and anarchist living in Exarchia, said the initiative
was necessary because the local authorities would not intervene "even to replace light
bulbs" in the square, known as a haunt for drug dealers, though activity has abated recently.
"The authorities want to downgrade the area because it's the only place in Athens that has
an organized, anti-establishment identity," Ms. Spathara said.
Mayor Kaminis said the local authorities were cooperating with residents "to rejuvenate
the area," and insisted that Exarchia residents had the same rights as all Athenians.
Yet in Greece's crumbling political landscape, anarchists appear to be styling themselves
as a political alternative to the government.
"We want people to fight back, in all ways, from taking care of refugees to burning banks
and Parliament," said Mr. Sagris, the member of Void Network and the Embros theater group,
which raises money to fund squats housing refugees. "Anarchists use all tactics, violent
and nonviolent."
He noted, however, that anarchists had a "moral obligation" to make sure that tragedies -
like the deaths of three people in May 2010 when an Athens bank was firebombed during an
anti-austerity rally - did not happen again. Though anarchists were blamed, none were
convicted in a trial that ended with three bank executives convicted of manslaughter
through neglect resulting from safety oversights. (They were released on bail, pending an
appeal.)
Another anarchist group, Rouvikonas, is looking beyond violence, though its members have
made a cause of raiding and vandalizing state offices and businesses.
Last week, members of the group, armed with large wooden sticks festooned with black
anarchist flags, conducted a night patrol of a large park in central Athens, saying the
police had not intervened to stop the drug trade and prostitution involving young migrants.
Mr. Toskas, who oversees the Greek police force, said the authorities had made a major
dent in the drug trade in Exarchia. "Some anarchist groups want to say that they got rid
of drugs in the area so that they can control it," he said.
Rouvikonas members recently applied to a local court to found a "cultural society"- to
help organize fund-raising events - and on Saturday the group presented its "political
identity" at a squat in Exarchia. (Anarchists insist they are not forming a political party.)
"Anarchists obviously cannot form a political party," said Spiros Dapergolas, 45, a
graphic designer who belongs to Rouvikonas. "But we have our own means to enter the
political center," he said. "We want to get bigger."
The group's long-term aim is "militant unionism," Mr. Dapergolas said. But, he conceded,
it is not easy for people to organize themselves. In the meantime, he said, "what
Rouvikonas is doing can be done by anyone."
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Message: 4
For 17 years of work as a lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina defended the national bolsheviks, the
defendants of the Bolotnaya case, publicist Boris Stomakhin, anarchists, anti-fascists and
other political activists. OVD-Info talked with Sidorkina about advocacy, personal
attitude to what is happening, the system of repression and the methods of work of the
FSB. ---- - When did you start dealing with political criminal cases? ---- - In 2006 year.
In Mari El there was a very exotic criminal case- I defended the Mari priest. He is so
peculiar very uncle. He believed that the Mari religion is the coolest of all. I wrote a
book about it, and for this he was brought to justice. Then there were several other human
rights cases in Mari El and Tatarstan, and in 2010 I moved to Moscow.
- Why, after the move, decided to continue to engage in human rights matters?
- If I had a choice, I would hardly have left for advocacy in Moscow. After all, I moved
not with the filing of human rights organizations, but simply decided to change something
in my life. Here I wandered the first year, I can say, I was in poverty. And then Pasha
Chikov (head of the International Human Rights Group "Agora" - OVD-Info ) decided to give
me a case. I said - come on. Especially since I was out of work then.
I started my legal practice in the Human Rights Center of the Republic of Mari El. I came
there after I received my second higher education - law. I did not have wealthy parents
who would promote me. I came and said: this way and that, they don't take a job anywhere,
because there is no cronyism, there is no work experience - I want to get legal
experience. The manager answers: "There is no money - I will not pay you. But practice is
above the roof. "
For the next three years, I combined work at this human rights center with work at the
CHP. It was the nineties, it was necessary to feed the parents and sister. At the CHP I
worked as a hard worker, on a sliding schedule in two days. Between shifts I went to work
at the human rights center.
The day I worked in the rights of the protection, at night I went to a shift by a hard
worker. At the weekend at the CHP, I again worked in the human rights
In general, here in this rhythm. Without days off, without holidays three years. I now
remember and think, Lord, how I stood. Then I got three years of legal experience, they
took me as an assistant attorney, then I went to lawyers.
- Why did you go to lawyers?
- Lawyer, I had such a childish dream. I was a book girl, I read them and decided to help
people. But I had no idea that it would be so[as it is now]. I don't know if I would make
such a choice with today's self-awareness in the profession.
Because so much negativity. Sometimes everything falls, you know. I recently Ilnur
Sharapova won a civil case in Kotelniki. They wanted to demolish houses there , but now
they will not do this if the decision is upheld in the Supreme Court. This is one won
case, when your work really did provide some real help - all negative write off
immediately. And then you think: "Well, okay, at least something in the profession you
have done good."
But when the judge all do not care. When the law is on your side, and decisions are still
taken against your principals. When you constantly have to live with this, it's hard.
I had a period that lasted four years - until this year. There was a very strong emotional
decline, which I didn't tell anyone about. I just burned, worked through the force.
Because everything. Burned out simply from everything.
This year I somehow recovered a little bit. More colleagues helped. They saw that I was
not coping emotionally, so last year they voluntarily forced me to go on vacation. The
first time in 20 years was on vacation. After it, I began to recover.
- Didn't want to quit everything?
- You understand. I'm not getting so tired of working specifically in human rights cases.
I don't always get satisfaction from[commercial]cases.
There are two memorable things for me. The first was in Mari El. The guy eventually did
not sit down. He now has a wonderful family, a beautiful wife and children. And if he went
to prison - it is not known how his fate would have been. I believe that the way this
matter was resolved is my merit. They probably don't remember me already, it was 15 years
ago, but for me it was a significant thing, because it really got satisfaction from my work.
The second case was in Moscow. There were anarchists and anti-fascists - this is the case
of Shkobar (Alexei Olesinov - OVD-Info ) and[Alexey]Sutugi - the case of a fight in the
club "Air". They wanted to hang up an additional episode according to Article 111 of the
Criminal Code, this is "serious harm to health", and Mr. Shkobar had an outstanding
conviction, he would have received less than eight years.
And there I managed to prove that Sutuga and Shkobar had nothing to do with this episode.
I believe that this, too, was our victory- mine and[attorney]Dima Dinze. Then Dill helped
a lot (anarchist Vladimir Skopintsev - OVD-Info ). He and a couple of other guys helped
collect evidence. Dill need a monument to put on this case.
These two things are significant for me. In other cases, I[did not]receive moral satisfaction.
-How did it happen that you were a lawyer in almost all criminal cases against anarchists
and anti-fascists who were persecuted in recent years? Is it a conscious choice to protect
the left?
- At first I entered these cases with the filing of human rights defenders, the same
"Agora". Later, as a result of communication with anti-fascists and anarchists, they came
themselves. Here is the word of mouth, most likely.
When you work on the case for a long time, you become the principal almost like a
relative. The fact is that advocacy is half the work of a psychologist. And this personal
human communication leaves a certain imprint and[creates]a certain degree of trust.
You always try to treat people like a human being. Because this is the main thing. In the
end, a lawyer doesn't decide much on political matters. The entire decision is made by the
court and it all depends on what position it takes in this situation. There, if something
is possible, then in small things, more or less in terms of the term of punishment.
Most likely, they should be asked why they chose me as a lawyer.
- But you agreed.
- Well, I agreed. Maybe I still have the instinct of self-preservation is not so
overstated, because I do not have a family and children. Maybe that's why I sometimes
recklessly took up some business.
- What are your political views?
- None. I am of non-Russian - Mari. We have Mari faith - pagan, I accept it. But at the
same time, I was baptized and converted to Orthodoxy. Five years was vegan, 15 years was
in esoterica. In general, I changed my mind a lot. But now I'm not even so much in God as
in a person, I probably believe. I cannot identify myself with any religious denomination
or political party. Some completely different humanistic principles that are important in
my life today.
- I ask, because I am trying to understand whether you are deciding whether or not to take
action, based on your political views. This is me all to the question about anarchists and
anti-fascists.
- Not. It's just purely human. I respect the fact that they, because of their convictions,
sacrifice themselves to society. Let some of them, after serving, change their views or
attitudes - I think this is normal. But I have a deep respect for the fact that they,
against all odds, go against the flow. Have their own principles. For me, it is the
ideological people who are driven by their beliefs that are interesting.
- Another question in the context of political views. When I found out that you entered
intothe "New Greatness" case and began to defend Kostylenkov, you were surprised. He
adheres to right-wing and ultra-right views, and this is out of the general number of
left-wing activists you have defended. For you the views of the person involved are
important when you enter a political criminal case?
- No, I'm here, I did not even think about this topic. I just thought this way - the
article is political, interesting, you can go with it to the ECHR (European Court of Human
Rights - OVD-Info ). Just now I am interested in exactly this kind of work that requires
some specific knowledge. It is interesting for me to dig, pee[the complaint]to the ECHR
myself.
And Kostylenkov ... He has his own cockroaches, he is so tangled, he himself does not yet
know what he wants. He has such youthful enthusiasm, a desire in this world to change
something, but he doesn't know how to do it and is trying to use its own methods and based
on his own knowledge. He is very difficult in life, because he is an orphan. He has to
somehow wriggle out. I perceive him purely humanly - for me he is like a son.
- Since there is so much negativity, it is impossible to specifically affect anything,
then why are you doing this?
- At first - because there was no work. But in general, all these cases are someone's
destinies. People should not be left alone with the system.
- Well, now you could find a job.
- This is a false installation, that if they write about you and you work on political
affairs, then clients come to you. I can not say that this PR led to some kind of
monetization and my turn is worth it. There is no such.
- Have you been cooperating with Agora for a long time?
"Since we are from neighboring regions, I started working and communicating with them
practically from the very beginning, since 2005." In human rights work, it is interesting
that we team up. Others do not understand, but for me it is important to share my
experience. And that share with me the experience. I can consult. To decide on some
documents on work, to consult about the position, presentation of evidence, forms of
presentation - how to do it. This is the very professional and human communication - it is
very valuable and important.
- How do you decide whether to enter into some new business or not?
- Now it is somehow more rational. I see whether it will work in this case at the ECHR. If
yes, then I try to take such cases. Now because how. At the level of national legislation,
there is little you can do in the process of political affairs. And the only hope is that
the case will be reconsidered in the European Court of Justice and thus it will be
possible to influence the law enforcement practice in the national courts.
Here is the same medicine, let's say - iatrogenic cases (crimes related to medical errors
- ATS-Info ). Hollowed, hollowed by medicine in the European Court. And whole departments
were created[in the Investigation Committee], which are engaged in iatrogenic affairs. As
a result, they recognized that the articles on the responsibility of doctors - they are
different . This is the result of the work that was done at the level of the ECHR.
Or, for example, the decriminalization of Article 282. This is also the result of work
through the European Court. Numerous complaints that went there, still played a role.
- Interesting. I did not think in this context about the ECHR. For some reason, I have
always believed that this is such a structure that criticizes the practice of Russian law
enforcement and writes compensation. But he did not know that it exerts some kind of
pressure and gives a chance to change something.
- There is no direct influence. This is a cumulative effect. Very slowly, but this is the
place to be. This is the mechanism that can actually be used.
- If we talk about the logic of the system, do you understand it in thecase of Azat Miftakhov?
- I think that the Miftakhov case is a direct consequence of the fact that he is an
anarchist by conviction. Now the security forces consider the anarchists almost the main
enemies. I made such a conclusion, both when looking at the general situation in criminal
cases regarding anarchists - the same case of the Network , and communicating with the
anarchists themselves and law enforcement officers. For example, when Isat with Azat in
the police department until two at night, I talked a lot with him and with the security
forces. About their view of life and everything that happens in Russia in the world.
- Why exactly Azat? He was first detained on suspicion of making explosives. No charges
were brought against him under this article, apparently they did not find anything to
cling to. Then they raised a suspended case about a broken window in the office of United
Russia. Initially, it was a case of vandalism, but apparently the article was weighed down
under Azat - now this is hooliganism in a group of individuals. And only after that Azat
is arrested - and he is arrested alone in this case. In general, somehow a lot of effort
was invested precisely in ensuring that Azat was first placed in the SIZO and secondly was
convicted. Moreover, he is an absolutely non-public person and as far as I know, he was
not the organizer of any initiatives, unlike Gaskarov, Solopov, and Sutugi.
- He is an anarchist and this is enough, besides, he is a graduate student of Moscow State
University. No matter who it will be, they mold the image of the enemy from the
anarchists. Even if Azat is not an organizer there, what Gaskarov considered. Now there
are no people in the movement who could unite someone around themselves.
- Why did you sit with Miftakhov until two o'clock in the morning? Is that part of a law job?
- No, I just humanly felt sorry for him. The police did not expel me, but they let me know
that I could leave. But I understood that as long as I wasn't going to be, they would push
him psychologically purely. I know how they behave in the absence of a lawyer. Even in my
presence, the opera could not be kept from edification and questions to Azat: "Why do you
need all this, who are you, and who do you need."
- And operas is all that for?
- Well, they thus assert themselves. Their own ambitions are so satisfying.
- Feeling strong? Any sense of power?
- Yes. Because this is the strongest feeling - the feeling of power. The presence of
weapons in their hands, a sense of power in varying degrees.
- In 17 years as a lawyer, did you manage to understand the logic of the system itself?
When the activists are seized - does it go some kind of order from above? Crush
conditional natsbolov, or crush conditional anti-fascists. Or is it decided by the
security forces in the field? Not specific operas, but, say, the Moscow Center "E", or the
Penza FSB.
- I came to the conclusion that this is a system installation. If we talk in pictures, for
me the system is some kind of big animal, a car with big legs like wheels. If you hit
these wheels, it will roll like that and continue to stomp you, and stomp, and stomp, and
stomp. That is, she now chews like a cow - and paddles with these wheels. And whoever gets
into it, into these grindstones, grinds them.
That is, it is such an installation. And she's kind of stupid. And it remains stupid,
without any emotions. Absolutely soulless mechanism that moves. That's why I say that
these guys, who are trying to prove something based on their ideological convictions,
evoke respect. Because they are actually sacrificing their lives.
- How do FSB investigators differ from others?
- The first thing, when I worked closely with the FSB investigators, was Kolchenko. Then I
clearly had the[understanding]of what the FSB investigators are, how they differ
significantly[from others], what they are. They sincerely believe in the correctness of
what they are doing, some kind of zombie. This is not what the investigators of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs or the UK (Investigative Committee - ATS-Info ), who can
somehow listen to your arguments.
This is the Crimean affair of Kolchenko and Sentsov - difficult for me purely emotional.
It was then from the dialogue with the investigator, I realized that he really believes in
what he says and what he does. And now in the case of Ryzhov- I see the same thing.
- Did you ask the FSB officers about torture? Why are they doing that? Why torture needed?
- I didn't ask about torture. But in general, I understood that they consider it to be in
the order of things. We, the defenders in the Sentsov and Kolchenko case, were shocked
when we learned that the investigator who conducted the case was present during the
torture. It was as part of the investigation.
When Kolchenko and Sentsov were sitting in a pre-trial detention center in Rostov-on-Don,
children from the Caucasian regions were sitting there with them - 205 each (article on
terrorist activities and terrorist attacks - ATS-Info ). Sasha spoke and Sentsov said that
these guys have all limbs black. From torture by electric current. Someone without nails,
they have black hands, burns on the whole body, traces of beatings. That is, it is part of
the system - torture. In the NKVD in the year 37, there were such people butchers - they
remained, and this is part of the system, which is still there. She has not gone away, and
she continues to live, with external changes of some attributes.
- Did you receive any threats during your political affairs work?
- Yes. Opera during criminal cases and said: "What do you think you are? Your
perseverance, trying to prove something. We all know about you. Today you are here,
tomorrow you can be there - behind bars. Or something might happen to you, you know the
fate of[the murdered lawyer Stanislav]Markelov. " Or they said: "Are you not afraid that
if you are not killed, but you will become disabled? Have you heard of such a lawyer? "
Well, that is, not directly, but.
On Facebook they write in lichku anonymous letters with threats. Sometimes operas try to
discourage customers from protecting me. For example, in the New Greatness case, the opera
and the investigator told Kostylenkov that he did not need such a lawyer[like me]and
offered to refuse.
- How do you handle it all? You feel, probably, a feeling of injustice when they pass the
next sentence.
- I'm experiencing, I'm a living person. Outwardly, she seems to have learned to hold
herself in her hands. And inside - anyway, there is a feeling of absolute hopelessness.
You think: "Damn, when will everything be humane somehow." Then you seem to rise like a
phoenix from the ashes.
And at such moments the only salvation: to try to smooth everything with some kind of
human attitude towards these people who have to bear such a cross. Because I do not see
another way to mitigate the situation in which the person was. Maybe I can't help him
somewhere legally, not even because of my own knowledge and capabilities, but because of
the situation. Well, how else can you help a person? If the court is unfair, the
investigation is unfair, the whole world is against you.
- And if we are talking specifically about you, and not about your clients.
- I study. I try. Looking for ways to save yourself and save. To some extent my clients
are teachers to me too. And I value human moments, I value the fact that through them I
meet new people. With their relatives, acquaintances, relatives.
Perhaps human communication is the most valuable thing we have in life. Through
communication, we know the world and get from life all that it can give us. We will take
with us only those feelings and sensations that we experienced in this life. It can be
people, it can be animals. This may be our perception of nature, the world around us.
Aesthetic some kind of pleasure. From what he saw, from what was done, from what he heard.
For this we have come, and with this we will leave.
https://avtonom.org/news/oni-vopreki-vsemu-idut-protiv-techeniya-intervyu-svetlany-sidorkinoy-o-zashchite-aktivistov
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Message: 5
pic.: May Day demonstration of "New Unions" in Ramallah ---- The article appeared in the
first issue of "Over Borders" [LINK
http://ozzip.pl/publikacje/item/2444-ponad-granicami-1-izrael-i-pto] - an addition to the
50th issue of the Employee Initiative Bulletin. ---- From the Polish perspective, the
history of the trade union movement in Palestine and Israel can be both a warning and an
inspiration. A warning against the disastrous effects of surrendering to nationalistic
moods and inspiration to overcome religious and nationalist divisions based on class
interest and opposition to capitalism, racism and colonial policies. Labor relations in
Israel and in the Palestinian Occupied Territories are still determined by such factors
as: military occupation, colonial expansion of Israel or anti-Arab racism. The struggle
for workers' rights is, by necessity, linked to the fight for equal civil rights or
opposition to military occupation.
Palestinian union movement before the uprising of Israel
The history of the Palestinian union movement begins in 1920, when the Association of Arab
Workers (AWA) was founded in Haifa[1]. The Association was strongly influenced by the
communist movement and quite quickly became involved in the fight against the British
control over Palestine and the immigration of the Jewish population, supported by colonial
authorities.
The central point of this struggle was a general strike in 1936, which gave rise to the
"Great Arab Revolution". The strike lasted for six months (from April to October) and
encompassed virtually all cities and key branches of the economy in Palestine. The
British, however, managed to break it with the help of military repression and support
from Zionist organizations. This resulted in the transformation of the strike into a
guerrilla war that lasted until 1939.
After the fall of the revolution, the Palestinian union movement began the process of
rebuilding structures that interrupted Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. The
trade union movement was then broken down and along with a wave of refugees pushed out of
Israel.
Jewish labor movement in Palestine in the years 1920-1947
The Jewish workers' movement in Palestine began to develop at the beginning of the 20th
century with subsequent waves of mass migration and was mainly associated with the Zionist
movement.
In 1920, the General Confederation of the Work of the Land of Israel (Histadrut) was
established, headed by Dawid Ben Gurion (later the Prime Minister of Israel) and for many
years he was the only trade union representation in Israel. From the very beginning, the
Confederate leadership objected to the Arab workers' being admitted to the union, and the
trade unions hosting Arabs who were members of the Histadrut were subjected to pressure to
induce them to give up the "mixed character"[2].
The struggle to increase the employment of Jewish workers very quickly became a priority
for the Confederation. In the 1920s and 1930s, Histadrut campaigned for a boycott of
Palestinian products and pressure on employers to give up the employment of Arabs. During
the 1939-1939 revolution, Histadrut supported the British administration by providing
scabs for key enterprises. The Confelegation Building Company Solel Boneh was involved in
building the military infrastructure used to suppress the Arab resistance.
All this meant that Histadrut was not so much a trade union but rather a "big colonial
enterprise," as Golda Meir (the Israeli prime minister, later a prime minister of the
Confederation), described it. In the opinion of the Israeli historian Zeev Sternhella, the
socialist values of the Confederacy were rather rhetoric, and in fact the relationship was
closer to nationalism[3].
Labor relations in Israel up to the 1980s
The newly created state of Israel created a corporate governance of labor relations whose
main purpose was to maintain "national unity" and silence the class conflict. Histadrut
played an active role in the construction of this order, which was not only a trade union,
but also the largest employer in the country through its subsidiaries. Membership in the
Confederation also included health and pension insurance. As a result, by the mid-1970s,
approximately 85% of employees and employees in Israel belonged to the Histadrut and were
covered by collective agreements[4].
However, the association excluded Palestinians and Palestines, who were employed as
seasonal and temporary workers in low-paid sectors of the economy: cleaning services,
construction industry, textile industry or in agriculture. Until 1959, Histadrut did not
accept employees and workers of Arab origin at all. Ultimately, these restrictions were
lifted, but only for people with Israeli citizenship - about 100,000. employees and
workers commuting to work from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were still deprived of
trade union representation, except for the illegally operating Progressive Workers' Block
(associated with the Palestinian Communist Party). The Block's activity was limited mainly
to legal counseling and sporadic wild strikes[5].
Union Movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
In 1967, Israel began the military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
introducing a state of emergency in these areas. Thus, the associations operating there
had to "go underground". Paradoxically, it caused the development of new employee
organizations - it was founded by political parties forming the Palestinian resistance
movement, thus wanting to show their commitment to the fight for workers' rights.
Despite the fragmentation and factional struggles, the Palestinian labor movement
demonstrated its strength during the First Intifada - a massive revolt against the
occupation that broke out in 1987. Intifada mainly took the form of a general social
strike - not only refusing wage labor, but also for example paying taxes or "strike" trade
(closing shops and boycott Israeli products), mass demonstrations and street riots. The
economic consequences of the Intifada were so serious that in January 1988 the losses of
the Israeli economy were estimated at USD 50 million[6]. Ultimately, this was one of the
main reasons why the Israeli authorities agreed to negotiations with the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) and the beginning of the peace process.
The expiration of the Intifada and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in
the early 1990s gave rise to the process of unifying the trade union movement. Most of the
unions operating in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip became part of the Palestinian
Universal Trade Union Federation (PGTFU) subordinate to the PLO. This, in turn, gave
impetus to the emergence of new, independent trade unions, which arose mainly from
spontaneous strikes conducted against the PA policy. Leaders were teachers and teachers
who organized wild strikes in 1997 and 2016.
The organization which since 1993 supports efforts to democratize the Palestinian trade
union movement is the Center for Democracy and Workers' Rights (DWRC) - an association
aimed at education, training and counseling in the field of labor rights. DWRC also
lobbies with the Autonomy authorities, seeking to modernize Palestinian labor law.
Inspired by the DWRC in 2007, the Federation of Independent and Democratic Trade Unions
and Employee Committees in Palestine (FIUP) was created, representing approx. employees.
The FIUP formed mainly trade unions that broke up with PGTFU in protest against the
undemocratic management of the Federation.
In addition to the FIUP, from 2015, the New Relations officially operate in the West Bank
- an independent organization of about 10,000. members and members advocating full
autonomy from political parties and PA authorities and against Israeli occupation. On the
margins of the trade union movement in Palestine, there are very few trade unions led by
the Islamic religious movement, which, however, traditionally focus on charity and is
poorly rooted in the workplace.
Contemporary trade union movement in Israel
In the 1980s, the restructuring process of the Israeli economy began, based on mass
privatization and decentralization of collective agreements. The pension funds belonging
to Histadrut were taken over by the banks, which combined with the introduction of public
health insurance resulted in a sharp decline in unionisation from 79% in 1980 to the
current 30%. However, the Histadrut crisis opened up the field for the development of
independent employee organizations.
In 1991, "Pracownicza Hot Linia" was created (Kav La'Oved) - an association that provided
legal advice and represented employees and employees before labor courts, who could not
count on the support of Histadrut. The impulse for the creation of the Line was the
closure of the movement between Israel and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip lasting over a
month, as a result of which many immigrants and immigrants commuting each day from this
area lost their jobs. Kav La'Oved has provided this group with a court representation.
Currently, this type of services Kav La'Oved uses about 35,000 annually. people - mainly
to recover overdue salaries or obtain compensation for unequal treatment.
A similar philosophy is guided by the trade union WAC MAAN (Staff Advice Center), which
started working in the 1990s. MAAN is a "two-nation" union, explicitly advocating against
occupation and anti-discrimination Arab workers and employees in Israel. As the MAAN
activist, Yoav Tamir puts it: "We are talking about the idea of a union that organizes
Jews and Arabs, Palestinians and Israelis and all others simply as employees"[7]. MAAN has
succeeded, among others to organize TIR drivers from Movilei Dror corporation and start
negotiations on wage increases in this company[8], to initiate the creation of the female
social cooperative "Sidyanna"[website of the cooperative]]producing olive oil and giving
work to the Galilee Palestinians and launching a campaign on the rights of the unemployed
and improving the quality of public services in East Jerusalem. MAAN is also the first
trade union to operate in industrial zones in Israeli settlements - Palestinian trade
unions can not work in them, employers most often do not comply with Israeli labor law,
and to release workers from the West Bank, it is enough to withdraw the permission issued
by the military . Nevertheless, MAAN won a collective agreement in 2017 at the car
workshop of Zarfata Garage, forced the company's management to raise wages to the level of
the Israeli minimum wage and won the trial for the restoration of Palestinian trade union
activists dismissed during the negotiations (who were accused of "sabotage" of military
vehicles)[9]. The success of the mechanics from Zarfata became an inspiration for the
employees of steelworks NA Metal Industries in the estate of Ma'ale Adummim, who in
December this year. they conducted a three-day strike, demanding that wages should be
leveled to the level of the minimum wage and the creation of a pension fund[10].
In 2010, Palestinian workers and workers living in Israel also set up their own
organization - Arab Workers Union in Israel, currently app. 4,5 thousand. people. AWUI
operates mainly in the area of Nazareth (the largest Arab population in Israel) in the
construction industry, textile industry, telephone service centers and nurseries and
kindergartens. In the opinion of Wehbe Badarneh, secretary general of AWUI, the basic
problem of Palestinian workers and workers in Israel is the double exploitation: "we
suffer as workers and as an ethnic minority." Examples of discrimination are cases where
employers forbid Arabic conversations or segregate jobs by nationality. This was the case
at several call-centers in Nazareth, which in 2012 became an arena of acute conflict.
Jewish and Arab workers associated in AWUI demanded: equating salaries, abolishing
segregation in offices, and allowances for work on Christian and Muslim religious
holidays. After a series of demonstrations and strikes, the committee managed to force the
management to meet all the demands.
AWUI: https://enawui.wordpress.com
Kav LaOved: http://www.kavlaoved.org .il
New Unions: https://newunions.wordpress.com
Center for Democracy and Workers' Rights in Palestine: http://www.dwrc.org
footnotes:
[1]- Palestinian Trade Unions - An overview. Foundation Report Friedrich Ebert, East
Jerusalem, 2016
[2]- Zachary Lockman, Comrades and Enemies. Arab and Jewish workers in Palestine,
1906-1948, University of California Press, Berkeley 1996
[3]- Zeev Sternhell, The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making
of the Jewish State, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1997
[4]- Yinon Cohen, Yitchak Haberfeld, Tali Kristal, Guy Mundlak, "The state of organized
labor in Israel", Journal of Labor Research Vol. XXVIII No 2, spring 2007, pp.255-273
[5]- Toby Shelley, Palestinian migrant workers in Israel: from repression to rebellion,
Libcom portal, URL:
https://libcom.org/library/palestinian-migrant-workers-israel-repression-rebellion-toby-shelley
(access from 21/11/2018)
[6]- Aufheben, Behind the twenty-first century Intifada, URL:
https://www.wildcat-www.de/en/material/aufh10b.htm (accessed on 1/12/2018)
[7]- Benjamin Balthaser, Labor Organizing Across Israel's Apartheid Line: An Interview
with Israeli Labor Activist Yoav Tamir, InTheseTimes.com portal, URL:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19262/organizing_across_the_apartheid_line_interview_with_israeli_labor_activist
(accessed from 20/12 2018)
[8]- Walton Pantland, A breakthrough for WAC-MAAN after a 5 year organization drive:
Movilei Dror trucking company recognize the union, URL:
https://usilive.org/breakthrough-as-radical-jewish-arab-union-
wins-recognition-for-truckers / (access from 2.12.2018)
[9]- WAC-MAAN signs a groundbreaking collective agreement for Palestinians at Mishor
Adumim's Zarfati garage, URL: http://eng.wac-maan.org.il/?p=1822 (accessed on 5/12/2018)
http://ozzip.pl/teksty/publicystyka/strategie-zwiazkowe/item/2501-zwiazki-zawodowe-w-izraelu-i-palestynie
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