#Update: #anarchist #news and #information from all over the #world - 18.12.2019

Today's Topics:

   
1.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #300 - Atheism and
      Secularism: Anarchist Politics Towards Religions (fr, it,
      pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  Greece, Anarchist Federation (Thessaloniki): Event -
      projections for the social revolution in Rozava | Saturday 14/12,
      18:00 at ECSC School [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
  
 3.  ait russia, Labor France does not give up [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #300 - Bolivia: Coup
      d'état or democratic revolt ? (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  Britain, freedom news: Editorial - Governments always
      overestimate what people will tolerate (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  Britain, ait russia: Statement by the British SOLIDARITY
      FEDERATION (SF) - Section M.A.T. about the election results
      12/12/2019 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  Greece, Anarchist Federation: Solidarity with the persecuted
      during the march on December 6 in Patras [machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
8.  Czech, AFED: A3: Re-education in the Czech Republic?
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1






 From Bakunin to the present day, anarchism has always combined atheist affirmation and defense of freedom of worship. Hence the presence of
UCL in the street on November 10 in support of the Muslim minority targeted by real political and media hysteria. ---- On the occasion of
the march of November 10, 2019 against Islamophobia, the UCL was more than once challenged by sympathizers, comrades from other political
currents, or ordinary people. Anarchism and religion, is it not contradictory ? Isn't your motto "  neither god nor master  " ? Finally, do
you renounce pure and hard anarchism ? ---- There is a big misunderstanding there. If the UCL unambiguously affirms its atheism, if it
considers that "  religions are among the main vectors of alienations  ", it also opposes "  persecution  " and "  prohibitions against
believers  ", and advocates a society guaranteeing freedom of worship and freedom of conscience [1]. So it made sense to walk on November 10 .

Far from being a step aside, this policy corresponds, in reality, to what the policy of anarchism vis-à-vis religions has been from the
outset. From his first libertarian programs, in the 1860s, Michel Bakounine clearly separated the requirements.

On the one hand, the revolutionary organization had to be openly atheistic, that is, to refuse to conform its policy to a revealed truth or
to a tradition, and to base it on human reason "  recognized as the sole criterion of truth  ".

On the other hand, its aim was to be a society guaranteeing freedom of conscience and worship, separate from any "  official Church  ", but
with the "  unlimited right for everyone to raise temples to their gods and to pay their priests  " [2]. In short, a secular society, to use
the vocabulary of our time [3].

There is no contradiction between positioning for a secular society on the one hand, and atheist affirmation on the other. On the one hand
because secularism authorizes religious proselytism as much as its opposite. On the other hand, because the decline in religious influence
is a prerequisite for the advent of a secular society. As long as a religion is hegemonic and its clergy dominate the balance of power,
there is no reason to accept the limits that secularism would set on its power.

A materialist analysis
With a few exceptions, anarchism, after Bakunin, reproduced this orientation: first, an anticlerical struggle, to stop the interference of
the clergy - and more generally of the clerical lobby - in public affairs ; second, an atheistic affirmation, based on a materialist
analysis of religion, social phenomenon and historical construction ; third, a rejection of the stigmatization of minorities, the purpose of
which is to strengthen the nation-state by excluding "  foreign  " elements .

All this has led the anarchist movement to defend the Jewish and Muslim minorities in the West, the Alevi and Christian minorities in
Turkey, for example. During a revolutionary process, believing and non-believing workers will fight side by side, as today in social
struggles. The libertarian communist society that will be proposed to them, without class and without state, will also have to be fully
secular to include its various components equally.

Guillaume Davranche (UCL Montreuil)

[1] See the UCL Manifesto , 2019.

[2] Bakunin, Principles and organization of the International Revolutionary Society , 1866 (L'Escalier editions, 2014).

[3] Jean-Christophe Angaut, "  Bakunin against God. Contemporary issues of anti-theologism  " , in Actualité de Bakounine 1814-2014,
Éditions du Monde libertaire, 2014.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Atheisme-et-laicite-La-politique-anarchiste-vis-a-vis-des-religion

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Message: 2






i) In front of ISIS with YPJ (Women's Protection Units) ---- ii) Women's Structures and the Rozawa Internationalist Commune ---- Since July
2012, a vibrant revolutionary process has unfolded in the northern Syrian / Western Kurdistan region of Rozawa, raising its stance against
capitalism, imperialism, fascism and patriarchy. The liberating social enterprise of the democratic confederation consists of the peaceful
unity of the peoples in terms of direct democracy, demonstrating in a simple way that the capitalists are merely paper tigers whose power
will be overthrown by the revolutionary workers. This is the historical duty of the subordinate classes. ---- One of the main pillars of the
revolution in Rozawa is women's liberation. Through 2 videos / documentaries (90 ´ duration) we will observe the experiences and daily life
of the transnational fighters who are at the forefront of this revolution. Through a highly comprehensible and experiential material, we
will hear what the protagonists of this struggle themselves today have to say about the revolution in Rozawa, which today radiates to all
oppressed and exploited the hope and, at the same time, the necessity for the revolutionary revolutionary formation.

Following the screenings, political briefing on current developments in Rozava will follow.

SATURDAY 14 DECEMBER (International Day of Solidarity Mobilization in Rozava) , 18:00 IN FREE SCHOOL SOCIAL SCHOOL

#riseup4rojava

Anarchist Federation (Thessaloniki Region)

anarchist-federation.gr
anarchist-federation@riseup.net
twitter: twitter.com/anarchistfedGr
fb: facebook.com/anarxikiomospondia2015
Youtube: Anarchist Federation

https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2019/12/12/4266/

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Message: 3






Wide strikes on transport against pension reform in France may continue after the Christmas holidays. During the holidays, there will be no
"truce" if the government does not change its mind, the representative of the railway workers union Laurent Bruhn threatened on December 12.
On this day, people all over the country again took to the streets, protesting against reform. ---- Ports were blocked in Marseille and Le
Havre. In the movement of long-distance trains, massive interruptions were again noted, the strike of the Paris metro continued. In the next
days, new disruptions in the operation of the railway transport and the Parisian suburban traffic are expected. Of the 16 metro lines of the
French capital, only half worked on December 13, and for the most part only during peak hours in the morning and evening. There will also be
work restrictions at the end of the week. The work of intercity communication will be severely disrupted. On December 13, only a quarter of
high-speed trains departed. French Transport Minister calls the possibility of a Christmas strike "irresponsible."

Strikes have been going on for a week. In Paris, nervousness is slowly increasing. At peak hours, only a few trains run; train stations and
trains are crowded. On December 12, 72% of train drivers went on strike on the railway.

In Lyon, Nantes, Marseille, Nice, Paris, December 12, new mass protests against government plans took place. In Le Havre in the north of the
country, thousands of people blocked the port. A huge cloud of smoke rose above the city, two schools in the port area had to be evacuated.
The same pictures were observed in the South. In Marseilles, demonstrators blocked access to the port. Burning barricades were erected. A
shopping center was seized near Nantes
(https://www.nzz.ch/international/streiks-in-frankreich-drohung-mit-ausstaenden-ueber-weihnachten-ld.1528269)
+++
The second end of the week in a row in France, strikes will continue against the planned pension reform. On December 14, severe disruptions
in the operation of city and suburban transport in the capital are expected. 9 metro lines will be completely closed. Bus service will only
be secured by 60%, but trams should run normally. Of the high-speed trains on Saturday, only a quarter will go. New large demonstrations are
expected in Paris and other cities on December 14
(https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/id_86997292/nahverkehr-in-paris-betroffen-streiks-in-frankreich-dauern-auch-am-wochenende-an.html)
+++
All new strikes and protests are reported. In Kahn, university hospital employees went on indefinite strike. In the Lands, the postmen
threaten a strike at Christmas. On December 13, 4 out of 8 oil refineries in the country went on strike; there is a shortage of fuel
(https://www.ouest-france.fr/economie/transports/penurie-de-carburant/carte-penurie-de-carburants-votre-station-est-elle-concernee-6653010?fbclid=IwAR1BMYeMXxuQ-pjppSGc4rzfRwCJY4bZGkESMb_qi4IZ9KmnQqne3w5SFfI)

https://aitrus.info/node/5382

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Message: 4






Shortly after his re-election, Bolivian socialist president Evo Morales has just been ousted from power after a conflagration of protests
and what looks like a coup. Criticized for his authoritarianism, he could leave the field open to the most conservative forces in the
country. ---- For weeks, it has been impossible to circulate in La Paz, Santa Cruz or even Cochabamba without making countless detours to
avoid the roadblocks of demonstrators. Traffic is so disrupted in major cities that the first shortages of basic necessities have begun to
be felt. ---- The trigger: President Evo Morales, one of the hopeful figures of Latin American socialism, was re-elected on October 20,
after fourteen years in power. Growing tensions in the country erupted in the aftermath of the election, which was immediately disputed: the
Organization of American States (OAS), authorized by the government to examine the legitimacy of the electoral process, announced before the
end of the investigation a massive computer fraud in favor of the OAS president whose impartiality was disputed while the final results
matched the pre-election polls, which all gave Morales the winner.

The clashes have already left more than twenty dead. In late November, the president finally found refuge in Mexico, while the
vice-president of the Senate Jeanine Añez took over to ensure the next election.

Two antagonistic accounts of the events circulate in the press: the democratic revolt against an authoritarian regime on the one hand
breathless ; on the other, the coup led by the country's economic elites and supported by the United States. We can see in these events the
characteristic trend of socialist regimes that emerged over the last two decades in South America to react very authoritatively to internal
disputes (here indigenous, trade unions, within the same socialist movement).

Uninhibited racism
This lack of democracy should not, however, overshadow the class conflict which is largely part of what looks like a coup, as highlighted by
a network of South American libertarian organizations in a recent press release [1]. The interim president has come to power carried by the
police and the army inheriting part heir to the dictatorship of Hugo Banzer, and before any legislative validation. Often criticized for her
uninhibited racism, she entered government with a Bible in hand, praising the glory of God, where Morales had established a secular
constitution, recognizing the diversity of the country's cultures and giving a significant place to the natives.

By his side, the very charismatic and uninhibited Luis Fernando Camacho, principal initiator of the blockages before the publication of the
electoral results, is a business leader of the extreme right and evangelical ultra-conservative ; previously a member of an anti-indigenous
paramilitary group, he celebrates the "  divine justice  " that drove out the socialist leader. It is hard not to fear for Bolivia a turn
like the one experienced by Brazil's Bolsonaro.

Marco (UCL Indre)

[1] See " No to the civic and military coup in Bolivia! ".

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Bolivie-Coup-d-Etat-ou-revolte-democratique

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Message: 5






 From Chile to Hong Kong, through Catalonia to France - it has been kicking off everywhere. It all just needs a spark. What these events
have in common is that they were all sparked by a government decision, of lesser or greater significance, but in all cases the States which
did so thought they could get away with it, as they have done for decades until now. ---- These decisions have been inflicted on populations
already massively oppressed by their living conditions, the politics of neoliberalism, and governments assumed that yet another form of
oppression would go unnoticed because people already have a myriad of other daily life struggles to deal with and would just put up with yet
another obstacle. That given a choice between striving for social change and their individual lives they would always chose the latter over
taking care of their wider communities.

These assumptions were wrong, and now they are scrambling to contain mass, long-term protest movements which apparently took them by
surprise. They deal with it, more often than not, with severe state repression. In Chile, for instance, the State quickly resorted to
bringing the army to the streets in order to contain a protest movement which started due to its decision to raise ticket fares.

The question remains - who will be the ultimate beneficiary of this recent wave of protests across the World? Will it be the United States
that, after a mix of repressions, divide and rule politics and token giveaways, somehow manages to contain it? Will it be the far-right with
their populist policies? Or will these upheavals lead to long-lasting, positive and revolutionary changes to the world we all live in, the
sort of changes we will be happy to support?

In the UK one may, perhaps optimistically, assume that with almost a decade of the Tory rule behind us that spark will eventually light.
Right now, as always, it is impossible to predict what might cause it. One thing is however (almost) certain - it will happen, and once it
does, the previous assumption that it was impossible will be laughable. Likely, as in many other places, it will be something seemingly
minor, something the government will not think about too much of implementing, but will still create a critical mass of problems which
people are not ready to put up with.

While it is impossible to say what it will be, we, the anarchists, need to do all we can to get ready. There are basically two ways to go
about this. We can remain in the echo-chamber of our equal parts beautiful and niche political ideas and then join the wider struggle,
hoping that somehow our niche becomes a mainstream. Or we may go out there, right now, talk to people, share our ideas in an accessible
form, maybe be ready for some compromises and potential criticisms. Get ready for working with people who may not necessarily share the
entirety of our position, but still have some common denominator with us. Start building structures based on the principle of mutual aid:
show how this can work in practice. Share our knowledge of what the State is, and what its main principles are. Join in with local
struggles. Show that anarchism, while it maintains a solid reputation of utopianism, can be and is the answer to the world-wide problems we
are all facing. Do everything we can to make sure when the spark comes it is not taken over by the far-right, whose only interest, really,
is to maintain the status quo of racist, oppressive states, poorly disguised as new politics and new hope, and blaming the most vulnerable
people for the wrongs of this world.

This is, of course, a difficult mission to undertake. It is however the one we ought to carry on, that is, if we are serious about our own
politics, and truly believe they can be introduced into wider society, and not only in our own spaces.

So get out there. Speak with your peers and neighbours. Share your resources, if you are privileged enough to have some spare. Show in
practice that anarchism can work: even if it will initially only be on a smaller rather than larger scale.

And, most importantly, don't sink to despair. After all, we are in a world crisis type of situation right now, but let's all try to see it
as a chance rather than already assumed failure. That's how our enemies see it.

Not all is lost, but comrades, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Pic: Protests in Hong Kong earlier this year

This article was written for the Winter 2019/20 issue of Freedom Journal.

https://freedomnews.org.uk/governments-always-overestimate-what-people-will-tolerate/

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Message: 6






A LITTLE OPTIMISM IN DARK TIME ---- It's not about saying "We said! ..." We have close friends and convinced comrades who have invested
their faith and energy in Corbin and the Labor Party. We feel sympathy and condolences for them. Losing hope should be felt as a
bereavement. Together, we regret the suffering that millions of people experience today. ---- But we can help and can offer an alternative.
Now we know that no one will come to save us. Nothing wrong. We can save ourselves. The Federation of Solidarity and the anarchist /
libertarian left have always believed that real power comes from below, not from above. We do not need to wait until another socialist
politician saves us from the Tories, we can save ourselves. We believe that politics begins at home, in our relationships with our families,
friends, society and work colleagues. We know that the politics of elections are out of the game, at least for a number of years. So let's
try an alternative strategy. Let us create real, strong associations in the place of residence and in the workplace that can repulse the
ruling class. Let's do it ourselves and we won't wait five years for the next die roll in the parliamentary game. The policy is what we do
ourselves, and not who we choose to do for us.

Here are our suggestions:

Talk to your neighbors. Find out what problems people in your community or community are concerned about. Get together, hold meetings, find
out among yourself what skills and resources you have, and come up with a plan to solve problems. Talk to other areas, work together and
begin to build the foundations of organized territorial associations. Do not trust the police, politicians, companies, or charities; they
are not our friends. Last night proved it.

Talk to your colleagues. Find out what is happening at work, what people are afraid of, what they care about, or who they are angry with.
Get together and have meetings at the workplace. Come up with a plan and start resisting. Talk to other workers and start creating a
movement of free, self-governing workers' organizations. Do not trust bosses, politicians or mainstream unions - they are not on your side!
Break the rules. Political power is worth something only if it can be used. If you are strong enough to resist, then they will not be able
to harm you.

Keep talking. Spread words and ideas. in particular, talk about your victories and successes. This seems impossible until we realize how
easy it is.

Be friendly to each other. In numbers - power, and connectedness - power. Your allies and friends are the only things you have. Take care of
them. We do not recruit members. Do not join the Federation of Solidarity if you do not want to. But talk to us - we can give advice and
maybe we can help.

FEDERATION OF SOLIDARITY (SF) - SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WORKERS

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Message: 7






On Friday December 6th and 11 years after the state assassination of the anarchist pupil A. Grigoropoulos by the cops E. Korkonea and V.
Saraliotis in the Exarchia area, many people chose to march on Patras's nightclub with the united Anarchist after an open call. A march of
remembrance against the forgetfulness and promise of a struggle today against the barbarism of the state, the dictatorship of capital and
modern totalitarianism. ---- The December '08 uprising was, moreover, the living denunciation of power from below, and it was expressed by
thousands of uprisings and uprisings in the barricades, conflicts, marches, occupations, expropriations of those days. It was the point at
which a multitude of different social subjects - students, youth, immigrants, proletarians - stood up to state oppression overcoming fear
and inertia and knelt into a pervasive atmosphere of social disobedience and disobedience and response.

The same brutality is expressed nowadays by the new ND government with the sharp repression of social and class struggles, evacuations of
refugees and the creation of new detention centers for migrants. At the same time, power continues to attack labor rights, freedoms and
acquis, continuing its attack by abolishing university asylum and attempting to enforce the bill on mass student expulsion along with a
number of other attacks on the affected social majority.

In the wake of the incessant and orchestrated climate of terrorism that attempted to impose the state with the help of bourgeois media and
the Minister of Citizen's ultimatums in the occupied cinemas, the public defied fear and froze the morning hours. Conflicts with repressive
forces erupt on the afternoon of December 6 in Patras. MAT forces make use of a large amount of chemicals, shooting tear gas in a direct
shot aimed at the protesters' heads and bodies. They then hunt down protesters with arrests and abductions exerting great physical violence
and humiliating them with sexist content.

Of the 20 abductions made, 7 were made into arrests. The four arrested were charged with multiple counts of criminal mischief and arson,
while the fifth person was charged with criminal mischief. The other two juvenile detainees are signed off on various documents without the
presence of lawyers or parents. The same thing was attempted with the other detainees, too - in an attempt to load up on them. It is a
consistent tactic of the cops to try to plant offensive elements and create cases against arrested militants. In this case too, "findings"
were attempted to be planted in front of the eyes of some of the defendants, who, when it came to their perception,

After 5 days in the detention facilities of GAD Achaia and while all days are held morning and evening by solidarity, assemblies, mass
rallies outside the security and courts of Patras, solidarity marches and squatting on the news site, the 5 those arrested are released
without bail. Two of them have the restrictive condition of not leaving the country and attending the police station once a month.

Eleven years after the December uprising, we continue to strive for social emancipation that will come through clear battle, through our
collective, unmediated and self-organized bottom-up struggles against our common forces and exploiters. In the face of the modern
totalitarianism of state and capital, state violence and barbarism that all it has to offer is poverty, oppression, and death, the only
prospect of resistance is the self-organization of all those oppressed in their natural fields. With our guns of class solidarity, we ought
to throw away fear, fatalism, passivity and privation in the direction of social and class emancipation.

TO THE BURDEN OF THE CAPITAL SYSTEM

SOCIAL SELF-ORGANIZATION - CLASS SOLIDARITY!

THIS STEP BACK, NO CONDITION

ON THE WAY TO CHANGE SATISFACTION!

DOWN THE HANDS FROM THE FIGHTERS!

Anarchist Federation
anarchist-federation.gr
anarchist-federation@riseup.net
twitter: twitter.com/anarchistfedGr
fb: facebook.com/anarxikiomospondia2015
Youtube: Anarchist Federation
https://libertasalonica.wordpress.com/2019/12/13/

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Message: 8






The rather unilateral class profile of involuntary prison cell residents only reflects the division of power in society. Download, print and
distribute the December issue of the A3 wall paper! ---- The prison system is, in a way, an invisible but necessary institution of every
state, whether it is a totalitarian or a democratic. Its past and present shows quite clearly that the primary purpose is not so much to
protect society, or even to re-educate the perpetrators of crime, but to preserve the order and, in the twenty-first century. The Czech
Republic is one of the world leaders in this field. ---- The number of prisoners per capita in the European Union is the second highest in
the Czech Republic after Lithuania. These two countries are very effective in imprisoning their population, with the number of prisoners per
capita in the West, but also in Romania or Bulgaria, halved. Thus, the Czech Republic has twice as many prisoners as is common in Europe.
The highest number of punishments is served by people convicted of theft (2016-19), 7140. The vast majority of people in prison serve their
sentences for minor non-violent property offenses. The vast majority of people in prison for theft are young people aged 19 to 33 years.
Most prisoners come from poor regions: Ústí nad Labem, Teplice, Chomutov and Most. On the other hand, two people were sentenced
unconditionally for the usury we witness at every corner between 2016-18. Nobody went to sit in that period for not paying taxes, which
became a favorite sport of all successful ones. For negotiating an advantage in awarding a public contract two people. Taking a bribe nobody.

Obviously, the state power is raising a not entirely marginal group of "punished", which certainly will not be needed in the industrial
future 4.0. The recurrence is 70%, so Kropotkin was right a hundred years ago when he said that "prisons are universities of crime." The
number of prisoners with cumulated sentences in the Czech Republic is slowly but surely catching up with the number of prisoners with one
sentence. Roll-thieves often receive much higher (accumulated) penalties than members of the ruling class convicted of widespread economic
crime. The accumulation of punishments has become such a problem (prisons are overcrowded to burst) that the Constitutional Court had to
limit it in August. However, it is only a libation that does not change much in the draconian order: "If there is a risk of inadequate
accumulation of penalties, courts may not exceptionally turn an older condition into an unconditional punishment. "In addition, the
cumulative penalty is replaced by an alternative penalty. Mainstream political currents now argue. The illiberal Conservative wants to
solidify, tighten, want severe punishments and full cells. The liberal one permits and seeks alternatives. Installs watch collars,
commissioning good work and devises restorative maneuvers. The result is merely shifting bars away from the prison building and legitimizing
the prison system as a natural part of life.

The elite, despite the routine routine of impoverishing the majority society, successfully avoid investigations and punishments. The last
case Dalík tells us what it is. First, a theater with strict security for the audience, while serving the sentence of housing in a luxury
guesthouse, finally forgiving the rest of the sentence without slamming accomplices from ODS party leaders. H-System bosses, managers of
investment funds Trend and Mercia, Pitr, Lukeš, managers of Union bank, Dohnal, Chvalovský, Kaplanová, managers of Bena, Srba, Rédl and
other hops of Radovan Krejcír, Takác and Bakus, Tejkal... these members of velvet business nomenclature enjoy freedom thanks to the amnesty
of Václav Klaus.

As for the non-privileged part of society, it is subject to continuous supervision. Everybody knows whether they pay taxes properly, fines,
whether they do not stimulate and work properly, they look after children according to the tables and discuss how they are doing on the
Internet. Because capitalism, the domination of money, the dictatorship of the market, and corporations create unprecedented property
differences between elites and the unprivileged, for individuals who find themselves at the very edge of society, breaking the law is a
matter of survival and thus arrested and imprisoned for petty theft, or overnight in public places. There is no choice beyond the walls of
the prison, there is no illusion of democracy, only a prison. The daily routine is determined by a strict order enforced by an armed guard.
Every action is monitored with suspicion. All individuality, any identity is destroyed and replaced by prisoner, criminal. Prison is the
last instance to enforce system obedience. It isolates uncomfortable elements from any real interaction and imposes predefined roles on
them. As long as society is exploited and subjected to laws made up of a narrow group of privileges, prison will remain a necessary institution.

A3 ( December 2019) for download HERE http://www.afed.cz/A3/A3-2019-12.pdf

https://www.afed.cz/text/7082/a3-prevychova-po-cesku

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