The content focus was on the comrades-in-arms from Belarus and Russia. ---- Below
we document the speech: ---- Some anarchists participated in the rally for theDay of Political Prisoners in Karlsruhe. ---- Our focus was on the comrades fromBelarus and Russia. We document the speech below: ---- March 18 as PoliticalPrisoners‘ Day goes back to the revolutionary events in Paris, in 1871, whichwent down in history as the "Paris Commune". It was the aftermath of theFranco-Prussian War. The French Emperor had been captured and the Republic hadjust been proclaimed. Many imagined that this would usher in a new era, but intruth the old system was merely perpetuated by a new band of political impostors.Disillusioned with the new rulers, a revolutionary uprising occurred on thatMarch 18 and Paris became autonomous overnight. The city got rid of the rulersand reinvented everything. There was food for the poor, free education, medicalcare, a separation of church and state, suffrage and self-determination forwomen, and much more. A city almost without any administration and a socialrevolution.The course of events at that time is highly complex and is still controversialtoday. To all those interested in the background, I can recommend the recentlyreissued book "La Commune" by contemporary witness and anarchist Louise Michel.What is often forgotten in the context of the Paris Commune is that in thosemonths of the uprising there were also comparable proletarian uprisings in other,larger cities such as Marseille or Toulouse, and barricades were built there as well.But this new order, based on the needs of the people, was not to last long. After73 days, the Paris Commune was crushed by the military with brutal force. Withinjust one week, the government shot between 20 and 30,000 Communards. The streamsof blood from the mass executions stained the streets and gutters of Paris red.Thousands of revolutionaries were exiled to penal colonies or disappeared aspolitical prisoners in the dungeons of the now once again ruling class.For those who believe that these events are a dark chapter of history that haslong since been overcome, it is worth remembering that there are still a largenumber of political prisoners today, even if this fact is all too readily deniedby the ruling class. As long as we have to eke out our existence as wage-earnersand exploited in a capitalist society, those who rebel against these conditionswill be criminalized and locked up by a class justice system whose sole task isto maintain the very conditions of ownership and power. The state in itself, evenin the early forms of its emergence, is and was always based on violence,exploitation and exclusion. A world without violence, exploitation and exclusioncan therefore only be a world without rulers, without borders and without states.But today we would like to focus on the Russian and Belarusian anarchists andantifascists.Belarus, under the leadership of the Stalinist Lukashenko, is considered the lastdictatorship in Europe. His regime since 1994 has been characterized by electoralfraud and unrestrained violence.The first major protests against the ruler took place in 2006, when more than10,000 people took to the streets against Lukashenko shortly after that year'selection - despite threats by the secret police to imprison the demonstrators forlife.In 2020, the situation in Belarus escalated again. Mass protests and strikes werethe response to the presidential election, which was accompanied by manipulationand repression. Over 33,000 people were arrested. There are numerous reports fromprisons of hunger, violence, torture and rape. Sharp shots at demonstrators,torture and murder ultimately led to the violent suppression of the uprisings. Inthe process, two people were shot, one died in prison for failure to render aid,and another was beaten to death. To this day, not a single criminal case has beenopened against their murderers.And all those who now believe that the German state would reject or even condemnsuch things, I must unfortunately disappoint them. Lukashenko's repressive gangshave been trained and supplied with weapons by the German police time and again1.The focus of this support was always the "handling" of mass events. The blood ofthe Belarusian demonstrators is thus also on the hands of the German police.Our solidarity goes to the anarchists and anti-fascists who are imprisoned in thedungeons of the Belarusian secret police. It is for all those who do not let therepression get them down and who oppose the cooperation of the Belarusiandictator with the Russian war of aggression. And it is for those who support thepeople who are currently still in Ukraine or have already had to leave.The cooperation between Lukashenko and Putin is not without contradictions. Onthe one hand, there is a strong dependence of Belarus on Russia, which stemslargely from the Soviet era. To this day, an agreement exists that is supposed toallow the two countries to join forces. At the same time, however, Lukashenko hasrepeatedly tried to break away from this dependence in recent years.However, the military cooperation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows thatthese two autocrats are nevertheless perfectly capable of working together.When it comes to repression against their own populations, the two states do notgive each other anything in return. In Russia, as in Belarus, the politicalopposition has been completely crushed. There, too, it is a sad reality thatpolitical opponents are murdered without batting an eye or imprisoned in mocktrials. Repression, torture and violence against any critical organization areunfortunately the order of the day there.But the current protests against the invasion of Ukraine show that not all peopleallow themselves to be subdued without resistance. Our solidarity goes to allthose who continue to oppose Putin's authoritarian regime and his henchmen. Andour solidarity goes to Grigoriy Sinchenko, who has dedicated himself for years tothe fight against the Russian separatists in Donetsk and ended up in Russian jailfor it. It goes to Evgeny Karakashev, Pavel Krisevich, Kirill Kuzminkin and allthe other imprisoned Russian anarchists and antifascists.By the way, you can find their names and the background of their imprisonment onthe pages of the Anarchist Black Cross Belarus and Moscow. There you can alsowrite letters to them or donate.But although today we have put our focus on our comrades in Belarus and Russia,we do not forget our other comrades, neither today nor on other days.We think of Jan, Ella and Lina. We think of Jo and Dy. And we think of thecountless Kurdish comrades who the German repressive apparatus wants to silencewith the accusation of "forming a terrorist organization". It has affectedindividuals, it means all of us!As anarchists, our attention is not only directed to the political prisoners, butto all people who are behind bars. As locked away, they are deprived of theirsocial essence to a high degree and are at the mercy of the repressive apparatuswithout protection. This disempowerment and everyday humiliation can embitterprisoners in relation to society as a whole. Torn social ties, loss of property,subsequent unemployment, and the branding of ex-prisoners make it additionallymore difficult to reintegrate these people into our society after their release.Of all the functions that prison advocates repeatedly cite, rehabilitation istherefore the one in which they fail the most.Our critique is therefore not only of prisons themselves, but also of the justicesystem that fills them. A system that places punishment and revenge abovereparation, that answers violence with counter-violence. A system that claims toact in the name of the victims, but at the same time does almost nothing torepair the damage done to the victims, but merely exercises revenge in theirname. It is to this system that today, on Political Prisoners Day, but also onall other days, our strongest criticism must be directed.For this reason we say:Freedom for ALL prisoners!Fire and flame ALL prisons!And up the anti-national solidarity!1 Bundestag Printed Matter 17/10727, 17th Election Period 2012https://anika.noblogs.org/2022/03/20/unser-beitrag-zur-kundgebung-am-18-03-2022-in-karlsruhe/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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