Apple removes VPN ---- Let's start with technologies: open and closed.
On July 3-4, the well-known Apple company removed several VPNapplications from its AppStore. And not for all users, but only for
those who are in Russia. Why? Because the well-known Roskomnadzor also
demanded this from Apple - of course, because Russians use VPN to bypass
the blocking of this very Roskomnadzor in order to access prohibited
sites. Well, Apple, without blinking an eye, sent a notification to the
authors of the applications that, they say, you must comply with the
laws of the countries where your application operates, so we blocked it
in Russia. I wonder, of course, whether Apple will now delete all
applications where the war in Ukraine is called "war" and not "SVO":
this is also absolutely illegal in Russia.
It's not that we expected anything different from Apple (in fact,
they've already done this in China before), but it's still a strong and
unpleasant blow for iPhone owners. There are two points to think about:
Here the difference between big business and non-profit initiatives is
clearly visible. There is a non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which makes
the famous Firefox browser open source. Last week, Roskomnadzor knocked
on their doors. And Mozilla also first removed VPN plugins from Firefox,
but a scandal broke out, and literally a day later everything was
returned, despite the laws. Apple will not do this, because profit is
more important to them, and it will not risk the sales of iPhones in
Russia. And for those of our listeners who use Apple products, think
about whether it's worth it. Moreover, if your beliefs are close to
anarchist, then it is better to choose more open alternatives that are
at least partially controlled by the community, rather than big guys
with wads of dollars.
Roskomnadzor can only try to block large centralized VPN services,
most often commercial ones. It is much easier for him to put pressure on
big companies and destroy a dozen large VPN providers than to fight tens
of thousands of small VPNs that people themselves create for their
friends and comrades. There are many different projects for this type of
VPN Generator, but in fact, even no projects are particularly needed
here. Surely you have technically literate friends, preferably abroad.
Ask them to buy a virtual server somewhere in Thailand for pennies and
install any VPN on it (we recommend Outline). There is no need to
advertise it anywhere, let 10-15 friends use it. And let there be
thousands of such servers. This is decentralized resistance to
censorship. Become a part of it.
Drone war and human voices
The darkness and horror of the war in Ukraine continues. Yes, it is
primarily darkness and horror. For military analysts, of course, this is
an invaluable source of information about modern warfare: for example,
we regularly hear that drones are increasingly fighting against other
drones, without human participation. Apparently, this will happen more
and more.
But the darkness and horror is because the improvement of drones does
not lead to a reduction in human deaths. For the sake of the ambitions
of the Russian dictator and his entourage, according to MediaZone
estimates, 120 thousand Russians have already died, and another 200
people die every day. On the Ukrainian side, the losses are unlikely to
be significantly less.
This is a huge number of active and relatively young people who, instead
of mutual extermination, could engage in interesting work and move both
Russian and Ukrainian society towards greater freedom and progress.
Anarchists are also dying in this war. Almost all anarchists from the
post-Soviet space (who are fighting) are fighting on the side of Ukraine
(at least, we do not know about ideological anarchists in the Russian
troops). We have already mentioned many times our comrade Dima Petrov,
nicknamed "Ecologist," who died in April 2023 near Bakhmut. Recently, an
interesting graphic novel was published (it's hard to call it a "comic
book"): in fact, it's an interview with an Ecologist entitled "This
conversation about Ukraine...".
This "interview" was not conducted in person - it took place as an
exchange of messages in instant messengers between the Danish artist
Mikkel Soze and Dima himself from February to April 2023. Dima was in
Ukraine, either in the trenches on the front line, or on vacation in the
rear. Mikkel was in Denmark all this time. So this is also an
interesting reflection of the communication between an external observer
and a direct participant in the war. I think it will resonate with many
who follow the war only via the Internet. And, probably, from the
relatives of those who are fighting.
Either way, I highly recommend reading this graphic novel. Among other
things, in it the Ecologist explains why he took up arms to fight
against the Kremlin's aggression. Mikkel asks him "If there can be any
benefit from this war, what is it?" And Dima answers: "The best outcome
of this war is a military defeat of Russia, which could lead to the
collapse of the regime of Putin and Lukashenko in Belarus, since they
are closely related." I completely agree with what Dima says, I think
this is a very correct explanation. Defeat in the war is one of the few
more or less realistic scenarios for serious destabilization of the
Putin regime. Victory in this war will lead to its even greater
consolidation.
Including because to whom it is war, and to whom the mother is dear. Big
wars feed the military-industrial complex around the world. Italy is
purchasing tanks and infantry fighting vehicles worth 20 billion euros
from the German company Rheinmetall, but Chinese factories are starting
to produce Shahed-type drones and sell them to Russia. But, of course,
it is the Russian monopolistic concerns like Rostec that are making the
most money: they now have orders for many years to come, and at the best
prices.
At the beginning I said that people are dying for the sake of Putin's
ambitions. This is, of course, not the whole picture. The war started
not only because Putin went crazy, but also because it is really
beneficial for the beneficiaries of the Putin regime: the owners of all
these factories that churn out shells and tanks, and the owners of all
this oil refining infrastructure that supplies gasoline to the warring
forces. army, and the bank owners who finance this whole machine. As the
old Marxist definition puts it, "fascism is the open terrorist
dictatorship of the most reactionary and imperialist groups of finance
capital." This is what is happening in Russia now. Only Putin is now the
face of financial capital.
Coming fascism
By the way, about fascism. Dima Petrov asserted in a conversation with
Mikkel that "Putin is now one of the most dangerous and bloodthirsty
dictators in the world," and this is probably true. But a turn to the
right is now being observed, unfortunately, all over the world. In the
first round of parliamentary elections in France on June 30, the
National Rally, the right-wing conservative party of Marine Le Pen, won.
She received more than 30% of the votes. The same thing is happening in
the United States, where the return of Donald Trump to the presidency is
becoming more and more realistic - moreover, the Supreme Court there is
already making decisions in the spirit of "the president has immunity
from any criminal prosecution." All this seems to be links in one chain.
It's a little better in the UK, where the relatively left-wing Labor
Party just won the elections.
But one should not delude oneself: it is doubtful that a simple visit to
polling stations will help against the encroaching darkness. As our
American comrades from the CrimethInc project correctly write, "all over
the world we need to organize and defend ourselves against fascism all
together." Unfortunately, it is unlikely that this defense will be
reduced to throwing ballots into ballot boxes. Ukrainians were among the
first to feel this onset of fascism: it came to them with missiles,
bombs and tanks with the letter Z on the sides. In other countries,
fascism may come in the form of repressive laws and strengthening the
power of that very top financial capital. At first. But then there will
inevitably be missiles and tanks with all sorts of fancy letters on the
sides.
Unless we all together turn the tide of events and stop this right-wing
conservative imperialist wave. Since fascism manifests itself in
different forms in different places and at different times, resistance
to it can also be very different. Sometimes it happens in the trenches
with a grenade launcher, sometimes in a home chair with a keyboard and
free software code, sometimes in the forest with a hammer in front of
construction bulldozers, and sometimes in a courtroom with a thick stack
of documents. But in order to fight together against what we don't like,
we must have our common project for the future. What is he like?
Libertarian alternatives
Unfortunately, it is often much more difficult to formulate an
alternative to the existing order of things than to list the
shortcomings of this very existing order. The world is changing rapidly,
and the pictures of the future outlined by the anarchists of the past
are no longer so easy to apply to the 21st century. Fundamental works
such as Kropotkin's "Bread and Freedom" or "Fields, Factories and
Workshops" are still relevant, but the very range of problems facing
humanity has expanded significantly, so that a new libertarian theory
and practice awaits new Kropotkins and Bakunins. I am glad that the
process is in principle underway - for example, read on our website a
new text from Irkutsk comrades "Stop using hierarchy and start living."
However, we don't have to wait for the next Kropotkin or Emma Goldman to
write a new thick book. The general basis of "our" values is clear: they
are joint decision-making, equality, horizontal self-organization and
freedom, both individual and collective. Using this common foundation of
values, each local community can develop its own forms of resistance to
fascism, suitable for the surrounding context. In general, "think
globally, act locally" - this slogan of environmental activists of the
seventies has not lost any significance, although all sorts of sales
managers are trying to appropriate it. Let's make decisions at the
grassroots level, but also think about the whole planet. This is the
libertarian alternative.
Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order and
Chaos, members of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchist
assessments of current events. Listen to us on YouTube, SoundCloud and
other platforms, visit our website avtonom.org, subscribe to our social
networks and e-mail newsletter.
Issue prepared by Mani
https://avtonom.org/news/protiv-fashizma-v-okopah-i-za-monitorom-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-165protiv-fashizma-v
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