Traditional summary of the previous year from the point of view of organized
anarchists with links to texts on the afed.cz website ---- The AnarchistFederation (AF) has been operating continuously since 1995, previously with theattributes Czech, or Czechoslovak. A lot of people have passed through its rankssince then, but the membership has always consisted of only a few dozen people.It is no different even today. So there is no quantitative progress, yet it wasnever and still is not a reason for us to abandon our activities, or even to giveup the anarchist vision of a free and self-governing society or the idea of theneed for federative organization. On the contrary, with the deepening climate andsocial crisis, we are all the more convinced that the self-organization of theunderprivileged on the principles of equality, horizontality, mutual aid andsolidarity is needed more than ever. From the life of the federationIn 2022, exceptionally, only one regular congress of members of the federationwas held, namely in mid-October in Hradec Králové.Until now, AF has been somewhat characteristic of not going anywhere, as we havealways cared more about content and principles than under which banner what isorganized. We recognized that it wouldn't be out of place to introduce ourselvesa bit and more actively offer our own ranks as a platform for anarchistorganizing. So we published a short leaflet "Who are anarchists?" and the PragueAF group organized an informal meeting with sympathizers in June and August witha barbecue or other program.According to their personal focus, the activities of AF members are usuallyconnected with other groups - some of us are active in the collectives Food notBombs , Limity jsme mi , Really good squats (ODS), NoLog , Shared houses, MSDN ,Zdena , Cocina. Perdida, Committee for the Defense of the Revolution in Rojavaand others.Internationally, AF is a member section of the International AnarchistFederations ( IFA ) and our delegate attended the regular meeting of the IFARelations Committee in March. As part of the IFA, we are trying to make the voiceof anarchists from Central and Eastern Europe heard as well.If in the previous year the main topic was the pandemic (AF joined theinternational anarchist statement on the covid-19 pandemic in February), the year2022 was undoubtedly influenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.The war in UkraineAggressive actions by Russia hung in the air. A few days before the invasion ofUkraine, we published articles about the anti-authoritarian movement andtendencies in Ukraine. Like everyone else, we didn't believe he would come. Shecame. Immediately after its launch, we issued a statement "Against the invasion,but without hypocrisy", in which we wrote, among other things, about the task of"supporting anti-authoritarians in Ukraine and Russia, listening to them,informing them about their positions and fates, and permanently showing them oursolidarity". The next steps could not wait. We just organized a successfuleventagainst the Putinist demonstration in Prague, they "decorated" the windowsof the Russian Sberbank, they participated in food and clothing collections andtheir transportation to Ukraine. We made a collection between us - about 80,000went to Solidarity Operation (today Solidarity Collective), to support specificpeople, to the Anarchist Black Cross in Moscow, Irkutsk and Belarus and someother projects. We helped people who were stuck at the border while fleeing, aswell as with accommodation here or organizing volunteer medical assistance inUkraine. We also devoted a couple of issues of the wall newspaper A3 to the topic- one warned against Russophobia, the other relied on the racism of the state,which openly discriminated against Roma refugees from Ukraine. On that occasion,we participated in a demonstrationfor the dignified treatment of these refugees,which took place on May 19 in front of the Ministry of the Interior.In terms of information, we focused mainly on the view of anarchists in Eastern,and thus also in Central Europe - we published the texts of the collectivesAutonomous Action , KRAS , Militant Anarchist , Pramen , Antijob ,Antiauthoritarian Squad , Operation Solidarity , ABC Dresden , Committee ofResistance , ABC Belarus , Anti-Fascist Action , Group of Belarusian Anarchistsin Warsaw , Collectives of Solidarity , ABC Galicja and Zone of Solidarity . Wetranslated interviews withan anarchist from Luhansk, with a member of theResistance Committee , with an anarchist from Donbass, with one of the foundersof Operation Solidarity , with an anarchist from Kiev, with a Belarusiananarchist in the Ukrainian militia, with a Finnish anarchist with strong ties inRussia, with a member of the Assemblea group , with the Anarcho-Communist Combatorganization , with anarcho-syndicalists from eastern Ukraine and the EcologicalPlatform . We zoomed in on the positions of individual anti-authoritarians fromRussia , a Belarusian anarchist fighting in Ukraine, a fighterAnti-authoritarianunits or activists of the Dresden Anarchist Black Cross. We also published thestatements of some other movements and groups outside the given area, such as theZapatista rebels from the EZLN , the Syrian rebels in exile, the support networkRiseUp4Rojava or the anarchist portal Freedom . We are aware that the Ukrainianstate is a bourgeois democracy similar to Western ones, so we do not close oureyes to the social status of the workers there and how the economic elite try touse the war to undermine labor law legislation.We also drew attention to anti-war protests in Russia , the burning ofrecruitment centers and property of repressive authorities, and sabotage on therailways. We covered anti-authoritarian and " interbrigadist " POWs , partialmobilization (including the homeless ) and resistance to it.In their statements, anarchists from Eastern Europe are very disappointed by theattitude of a large part of the left , i.e. anarchist movement in the West, whichdoes not want to hear or understand their positions, and they point to thepathology of Western pacifism. Differences in attitude towards the war alsooccurred within the IFA , where we made it clear that we were on the side of thefight against Z-fascism. Although a joint compromise statement was issued, wehave attached our own critical commentary to it, in which we consider the jointstatement to be insufficient. However, there was no further discussion. All thatwas left was to react critically again, when the Italian Anarchist Federationpublished the text "For a new anarchist manifesto against the war" ignoring thereality in Ukraine and our friends from Eastern Europe. We also addressedattitudes within the anarchist movement in the main topic ("Resistance toInvasion") of the spring issue of Existence magazine , where we also discussedhow anarchists in the Czech Republic stand towards the war in Ukraine. We had noidea how, within the Czech movement, fringe opponents of the Ukrainian resistanceto Z-fascism would often attack our position in an obscene and dogmatic way. Forthat reason, on the one hand, we published a study on Malatesta's (whom theaforementioned like to quote) attitude to the struggle for nationalself-determination, we presented modern historyof Ukrainian anarchism and alsoprepared a lecture "Anarchists and the war in Ukraine", which we performed at theFluff and Riot over River festivals. At the autumn congress, the continuation ofour support for the defense of Ukrainian workers against the bloody imperialappetites of Putin and his sycophants was confirmed, especially in the practicalform of supporting anarchist initiatives, projects and fighters directly inUkraine, but also by supporting anarchists in Russia and Belarus.In this regard, during the year we also tried to present anti-authoritarianplatforms that help in Ukraine, their specific activities (e.g. SolidarityCollectives , Cars of Hope , ABC Dresden , Medical Self-Defense Network ) and thepossibilities of directly or indirectly supporting them, and this includes veryspecific collections (e.g. for a field medic or for a car for a combat unit). Inthe same way, we called for the support of ( not only ) anarchists in Russia andBelarus. We also enjoyed participating in benefit concerts .May Day and Anarchist StrategyWe also touched on the topic of the war in Ukraine at the Anarchist May 1st ,which we organized together with FNB Žižkov and Krisa in the form of a picnicwith speeches and placing a bouquet at the memorial plaque of the first May Dayworkers' meeting, traditionally in Prague on Strelecky Island, with theparticipation of about a hundred people. We focused on the workers' roots of MayDay and the topic of work from an anarchist perspective, i.e. the struggle forfree work, which is opposed to the existing system of wage labor. In one of AF'sspeeches, we emphasized the federation's relationship to tradition and warnedagainst ideological slogans that stray from reality. This is because it does notfollow our wishes, and therefore we have to take it into account and think overour positions repeatedly.We analyzed this in greater depth in the autumn issue of the Existence magazineon the topic "Anarchist strategy", which is dedicated to thinking about anarchistpolitics and understands anarchism as a dynamic direction of thought and acompass in our decision-making, daily actions and planning of longer-term activities.For climate justice and against the energy crisisAlso in 2022, we were involved in the fight for climate justice, especially bysupporting the activities of the Limity jsme my! initiative, which, among otherthings, organized Climate Camp 2022 in Ostrava in connection with the blockade ofthe local coke plant. We also joined the parody party , which targeted the fossilbillionaire Kretínský. In addition, we dusted off our anarchist wagon and formedan anarchist block at a high school climate strike, and in November we supporteda college climate strike and participated in a related demonstration on November17th. We commented on the climate battlefield from an anti-capitalist perspectivein the November issue of the wall newspaper A3 .The effort to drag out the fossil business for as long as possible at the expenseof life on the planet was behind, among other things, the energy crisis, which,in conjunction with rising inflation, often means the complete breakdown offamily budgets. In the A3 newspaper , we responded to this with the texts " Let'snot pay for rich people! ", " Expropriate the oligarchs! " and " Luxury for all". The latter text explained why anarchists were joining the trade uniondemonstration against poverty that took place on October 8. Several dozen peoplesupported the anarchist block under the slogan of the same name, and there wasalso a conflict with one of the nationalists present. It was this sort of peoplewho took part in other demonstrations, which responded to the crisis essentiallyonly marginally, in fact it was still a similar brownish coalition, as we know itfrom previous years.More and more people find themselves at the bottom of the social ladder, which iswhy we actively and passively support the Food not Bombs collectives, whichprovide food to the needy and organize charity events . We were able topersonally wish the Pilsen team a happy 10th birthday. At the same time, wemediate similar inspirations from abroad, such as solidarity breakfasts .Another unsolved problem is the housing crisis, where many cannot afford theirown housing due to high prices and often have to work to pay high rents. At thesame time, there are still quite a few empty apartments and entire buildings inthe cities. One of these was occupied by the ODS team and we helped him in this.This happened at the end of November in Prague-Strašnice. With this demonstrativeaction, it was possible to get the management of the city district to negotiateon the allocation of a building for the project of an autonomous social center.We supported a solidarity protest in front of the Greek embassy against theeviction of the Prosfygika squatter neighborhood in Athens. We also closelyfollowed the events surrounding squats in Europe and subsequently reported on theaccused in connection with the raid in Berlin's Rigaer94, about the threat toPoznan 's Rozbrat , about the prosecution of the inhabitants of the Spanishsquatter village of Fraguas or about the occupation of new space in Ljubljana.For the rights of women, LGBT+ and migrantsThe fight for women's rights is permanently present in the AF agenda.International Women's Day is a traditional reminder of this struggle. In 2022, Iparticipated in the feminist festival in Žižkov and the subsequent demonstration"Shout NO to violence on all fronts!", which thematized anti-militarism infeminism due to the events. We were pleased to initiate the MDŽ celebration inPilsen, which was organized by local activists. In the A3 wall newspaper , wehave the text " Regressive parade "." condemned the clero-fascist "March forLife" and subsequently participated in various forms of protest against it. InJune, we took part in a demonstration in Prague that protested against thedecision of the US Supreme Court regarding the legality of abortion. Separately,although with a minimal response, we then launched a campaign against restrictingthe right to abortion, as part of which several banners were put up in Prague. Asan inspiration in the struggle of women, we brought in our media an extensivedescription of the feminist movement in Chile.We also addressed the topic of the status of LGBT+ people. And so we joined theblack and pink bloc at the Prague Pride parade, which spoke out against thepresence of corporations (including fossil ones) at this pride celebration. Wereported on the death sentences for two lesbians in Iran, and the terroristattack on the Tepláren club in Bratislava certainly did not leave us in peace. Wepublished a thematic issue of the A3 newspaper with the text " We are all theHeating Plant! ", we initiated the announcement of a decentralized march againstviolence against LGBTIQAI+ people, which eventually took place in six cities.Organizationally, we contributed to the biggest one in Prague , which wasattended by more than a thousand people. In Pilsenwe again participated inhonoring the victims of the attack through a musical party.Regarding the rights of migrants, in addition to the protest against thediscrimination of the Ukrainian Roma, we reported on Greek border guardstorturing migrants and deporting them to Turkey or on protests against thecriminalization of migration in Poland .We did not stop drawing attention to the racism of the Czech police andremembered Roma, whose life was ended by a police intervention in 2021, which wasfollowed by racist expressions of police and political leaders. We also providedinformational support to anti-fascists who, through direct actions , repeatedlydraw attention to the presence of the Nazi memorial on Hvezda hill near Tanvald.And last but not least, we mobilized for the August anti-fascist festival inBratislava.Resistance and solidarity in the worldWe have been providing information and anarchist perspectives on the variousuprisings and protests occurring throughout the planet during 2022.At the beginning of the year, we reported on the uprising in Kazakhstan . InPrague, we participated in a solidarity rally with the anti-authoritarianprotests there, and after the suppression of the uprising with the help ofmilitary intervention from Russia, we published the January issue of thenewspaper A3 on this topic .We have been following the events in Rojava for a long time. We brought aninterview with a call to support the completion of a documentary film about dailylife in revolutionary Rojava. We have prepared a book review by a Czech fighterin Rojava about his stay in a Turkish prison. We joined the protest againstTurkish military intervention in the affairs of the northern Syrian Rojava, whichtook place in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic onthe occasion of the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister. About the fascistnature of the Turkish state, we published an issue of the A3 newspaper with thetext " What is NATO silent about?" " and recalled the Turkish invasion of Afrinor the suppression of the anti-authoritarian uprisingin Turkey which occurred inJune 2013.We are also monitoring the situation in Myanmar, where there was a military coupin 2021 and subsequent protests. These continue to this day, anarchists are alsoinvolved in them, and at the same time, several FNB groups work amazingly here .We commemorated the first anniversary of the coup and provided extensive materialto the anarchopunk zine Postaztaa .We focused on the uprising in Sri Lanka, about which we did not have muchinformation at first, but fortunately after some time we discovered detailedinterviews with anarchists from Colombo and Kandy for translation and a reflex ofthe occupation movement during the riots from another anarchist there.Vast areas of Pakistan found themselves under water during the devastating floods, the state was unable to respond effectively. People often have no choice but tohelp each other. Anarchists there organized aid and we joined their call forfinancial support.In September , the morality police killed a young Kurdish woman, sparking anuprising across the country. On that occasion, we published a comment by afriendly KPK collective, an interview with an anarchist from Iran, andinformation about the protest " decoration " of the Iranian embassy in Prague. Wealso reflected on the uprising against the military junta in Sudan through aninterview with an anarchist there.We also reported on, for example, the strike in the contract sector in Britain,the eviction of the Nora forest occupation in Poland, the fight against limestonemining in Sweden and the fight against the Mountain Valey gas pipeline in the USA.Against the repressive machineryA movement that does not care about its persecuted friends is not worth much.This is not the case with the anarchist, who - and we with him - remembers hisprisoners during, for example, the International Week of Solidarity withAnarchist Prisoners in August. On that occasion, we published a text about theeffort to publicly honor the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston (a week ofaction was announced on the anniversary of their judicial murder), sent a jointbirthday wish to our friend Mikol Dziadok, who is held in a Belarusian prison,remindedat least some imprisoned anarchists and anti-fascists or the names ofprisoners of conscience in Putin's and Lukashenko's empires, brought referencesto groups of the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), which takes care of the persecutedand imprisoned, from all over the world and specially introduced the GalicianABC, which was involved in helping anarchists fighting against the Russian invasion.For a long time, we have been interested in repression against our friends inEastern Europe, especially in Belarus, many of them received long-term sentences,but before that they were often tortured by the police . Due to repressivepressure, some activities were terminated, e.g. FNB Minsk . Igor Olinevic, whowas sentenced to 20 years on hunger strike , wrote the book Jedu do Magadanduring his earlier imprisonment . Her first Czech edition is hopelesslydismantled, moreover, according to her, the 3+KK Theater staged the play , and sothe AF Publishing House started preparing a second edition. In 2022, we sharedcalls to help those prosecuted in several processes, such as lawsuitsPramen orRevolutionary Action (we have published several closing speeches from it). Wecontinued to focus on the trials of Krystyna (Kita) Cerenková, Dmitrij Dubovskýand Nastya Kuchta. Let's also mention that we were interviewed by Belarusianactivist Piotr Markielau, who in November protested at the Prague branch of IKEAagainst the corporation's use of prisoner slave labor.Likewise, repression against anarchists (and newly anti -war activists) in Russiacontinues. Therefore, as a sign of support, we sent a collective photo with aflag and banner to our friends in Irkutsk, Siberia.We also publicized some repressive cases in Western Europe - the attempt toproduce terrorists in France , the condemnation of anarcho-syndicalists in Spainor the protest hunger strike of anarchists in Italy .Magón 2022 and other memoriesWe decided to dedicate each year to a personality associated with the anarchistmovement. This time we focused on the Mexican revolutionary Ricard a Flores eMagón , to whom we dedicated the year-long Magón 2022 series on our website tomark the 100th anniversary of his death . As part of it, we also presented hisclosest comrades-in-arms, the context of the Mexican Revolution , the manifestoof the Mexican Liberal Party, the significance for the current Zapatistamovement, but also some of his texts about women , war , government orindustrialization. We completed all this by publishing a book with these andother texts.In 2022, we said goodbye to our friend and historian of anarchism Václav Tomek,dedicated a personal memory to him and presented his extensive publishingactivity. After 10 years since the death of our friend Jakub Polák, we had thehonor of actively participating in the scattering of his ashes and the subsequentdiscussion dedicated to his memory. Like every year, we commemorated the death ofthe anti-fascist skinhead Jan Kucera and talked about him at the music festival .We also remembered others: 17 years since the brutal police murder of Oury Jallohin Dessau, Germany, 13 years since the murder of Stanislav Markelov and AnastáziaBaburová , 53 years since the self-immolation of Jan Zajíce , 101 years since thedeath of PA Kropotkin , 60 years since the death of E. Armand , 135 years sincethe execution of the Chicago anarchists , 140 years since the birth of FrantaSauer . Other anniversaries we have not forgotten: 150 years since the anarchistcongress in St-Imier, 100 years since the foundation of the InternationalWorkers' Association or 33 years since the foundation of the first modernanarchist organization in our country.In addition, we brought obituaries of anarchists such as Sergio Castilla ,Claudio Venza , José Morato , Serge Livrozet , Pepe Cuevas (known from the Scalacase ) and Filip Rusina . In connection with the war in Ukraine, we wrote aboutthe death of Igor Volokhov , Sergey Petrovichov, Yuriy Samoilenko , Olga Volkovéand five social activists . We also reported on the murder of June Knightly andthe suicide of Pavel Koršunov .Anarchist mediaAF operates its daily updated website afed.cz as a central medium . In addition,we manage the AF Publishing website , and before the presidential elections inJanuary 2023, we started working on a special website that would clearly expressour position on the presidential office itself, as we described, among otherthings, in the December issue of the A3 newspaper . In addition, we maintainfederation profiles on social networks such as Mastodon , Facebook , Twitter andInstagram .During 2022, we published two issues of the anarchist review Existence and oneissue of the wall newspaper A3 every month . These are intended for pasting - theAF-Olomouc group was undoubtedly the most active in this direction, including thepasting of May Day posters and stickers with anarchist and anti-fascist messages.As part of the AF Publishing House, we published the comic book Goodbye, Batmanin 2022 .With it and other publications, we then participated in the Anarchist BookFestival 2022 , in which we took part in the organization . With the distributionof our printed materials, we presented ourselves at the Fluff fest , the LITR2022 book festival, the Riot over River music festival or at various benefitconcerts .In addition to our own publications, we also tried to promote in the form ofreviews books from friendly publishers or those that we found interesting . Suchpublishers are, for example, the Neklid publishing house (we reviewed the booksCommunal luxury , Mutual help: the evolution factor , Women who didn't want to besilent , Anarchy here and now and Believe in beasts ), UTOPIA LIBRI , Salédistribution and Nevim . When we didn't like something, we spared no criticism,as with the book about Luisa Landová-Štychová.At the end of the year, we published a series of " Punk Christmas " texts on ourwebsite about the relationship between the punk subculture and anarchism.Next yearIn 2023 , we want to continue to focus on supporting our friends in EasternEurope and trying to make their voice heard within the global anarchist movement.We have prepared a rich publishing plan for two years ahead, so everythingdepends only on how the costs invested in earlier publications will be returned.We have been working on expanding the "Anarchism for Beginners" project, so wecan expect to see more of its output published. We dedicate the year 2023 to thecentenary of the death of Jaroslav Hašek. We would like to make the traditionalMay Day meeting a little richer and we intend to continue to be involved -whether under the banner of AF or outside it - in activities against variousforms of discrimination, for autonomous spaces, climate justice, the right tohousing and other topics corresponding to our agenda.https://www.afed.cz/text/7834/cinnost-anarchisticke-federace-v-roce-2022_________________________________________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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