(en) Czech, AFED: No one is illegal - Invitation to a lecture tour of the No Borders collective about the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In cooperation with other collectives, we invite you to a series of discussion

evenings, which are part of a lecture tour dedicated to the current situation on
the Polish-Belarusian border. From February 23 to March 4, our friends from the
No Borders Team (NBT) will visit a dozen cities to talk about how inhumane
supposedly civilized Europe can be. ---- No Borders Team is an anarchist
grassroots group uniting individuals from various collectives from all over
Poland and Europe who oppose the actions of border authorities whose aggression
is directed at people seeking refuge in the European Union. ---- As a group, NBT
believes that freedom of movement and residence is a basic human right.
Therefore, they do not agree with the authorities' policy of categorizing people.
No person is illegal and solidarity and mutual aid are the answer to a system
based on xenophobia and contempt for people from different ethnic groups.

In recent times, NBT has been particularly concerned with the situation on the
Polish-Belarusian border, where a barrier made of razor wire was built and where
refugees who try to cross it are treated inhumanely by repressive forces. On the
one hand, the fundamentalist conservative government in Poland protects the lives
of unborn individuals by banning abortion in its misogynistic campaign, but it
allows living people to die of hunger, freezing and self-inflicted injuries with
calmness and contempt. For example, on Sunday, February 12, the body of a
28-year-old woman of Ethiopian origin was found dead on the border between Poland
and Belarus, who died after Polish border guards did not provide her with first aid.

During the "No One Is Illegal" tour, talks will be held in the following dates
and cities:

Thursday 23 February - Hradec Králové
Bajkazyl (Czechoslovak Army 216/41)
from 6.30 p.m

Friday 24 February - Liberec
Asylum beer bar (Shiroká 302)
from 18.00

Saturday 25 February - Prague
Cross Club (Plynární 23)
from 17.00
The event takes place as part of the Riot Over River Winter benefit festival

Sunday 26 February - Děčín
Teahouse Ve vlnách (Hudečkova 1)
from 6.30 p.m

Monday 27 February - Pilsen
Kulturka ZČU (Sedláčkova 19)
from 18.00

Tuesday 28 February - Brno
Three Tails Base (Tř. kpt. Jaroše 18)
from 6.30 p.m

Wednesday 1 March - Bratislava
Fuga (SNP Square 24)
from 6.30 p.m

Thursday 2. 3. - Trnava️
Kubik (Štefánikova 4)
from 5.30 p.m

Friday 3. 3. - Olomouc
SF Mini (Brněnská 110/49)
from 18.00

Saturday 4. 3. - Orlová
Fur (Masaryk class 1000)
from 8 p.m

Each of the talks will start with a screening of a short film about the
Polish-Belarusian and Polish-Ukrainian borderlands, on which NBT collaborates
with local and other activists. It shows the differences between the two sides of
the European Union's eastern border: one is open and welcomes people who are
fighting against the Russian invasion, and the other at the same time - just 300
km away - is killing people who are fleeing another war.

The screening will be followed by a presentation led by friends from NBT, where
there will also be space for discussion, questions or sharing different
perspectives on how to help people move right now.

If you cannot participate in the tour, but want to support the No Borders Team,
for example financially, you can do so through the Firefond by making a
contribution to help people in guarded centers for foreigners.

https://www.afed.cz/text/7869/nikdo-neni-ilegalni
_________________________________________
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Belarus, Arrests, detentions and interrogations ? World Hockey Championship 2014 in Minsk

Several hours left before the official start of the World Hockey Championship 2014 in 
Belarus. Event that was planned in 2009 during another political thaw between the West and 
Lukashenko was constantly criticized by human rights and political organizations for 
support of Lukashenko?s political regime. Many groups called national hockey teams to 
boycott the championship, however International Federation of Ice Hockey decided once 
again that sport is standing apart from politics and retained the right for hosting 
championship in Minsk. But it is impossible to keep sport business away from politics. For 
Lukashenko this championship is a unique way to legitimize Belarusian political system on 
behalf of tournament participants. On the one hand, we see harsh critics of the regime 
from the West, on the other hand, Minsk today is full of national flags of teams 
participating in the show. In this atmosphere the political tensions seem to be gone and 
everyone is going to enjoy the truce.

At the time when players of national teams will be ice skating and
monkeying around in ice palaces build for this one-time event, and
tourists, the ones that will dare to come to Belarus, will be spending
their money to recover Belarusian economy, Belarusian police and KGB
will increase repressions of any Lukashenko?s political opponents.
Nowadays dozens of activists ended up in jail based on false minor cases.

Anarchists are not an exception in the wave of repression. 6 anarchists
already serve from 15 to 25 days in jail for minor offenses, 4
antifascist hooligans were detained for 10 days. Many activists last
days are under constant pressure: police is calling and visiting them at
home trying to get those people for informal interrogation. Some people
were arrested in the middle of the day, kidnapped by unknown people in
civil and pushed in the car, the same manner as it was happening at the
times of blooming KGB terror in the Soviet era. Last week at least 25
cases were reported to ABC-Belarus connected with described methods. It
is unknown, how many people right now are targeted by the police. But we
can say for sure, that they are over hundred ? those are the people
connected with anarchist and antifascist movement known to the police
from different sources. Right now we get reports about the pressure from
Minsk and Brest, but it is quite obvious that the scale of repressions
is covering the whole country.

During these conversations police is asking people about their place of
work, membership in organizations, participation in political movements,
participation in football hooligans groups, affiliations to the
anarchist movement, their interests and hobbies. Also police is
interested in circles of friends, their places of living and work, phone
numbers, plans of activists for the championship and their accounts in
social networks. The context of these conversations become known to us
from people who unfortunately didn?t manage to avoid these informal
interrogations by the police.

All in all it is expected that more people will get arrested by the
police and sentenced to jail terms. This is the tactics of the
Belarusian police to avoid any protests or political activities during
the hockey championship. It is already quite clear that so-called
apolitical sport event became another trigger for political repressions
inside of Belarus.

http://abc-belarus.org/?p=4612&lang=en

Het failliet van een wereldkampioen: Spanje heeft geen geld meer voor de uitzendrechten van de Selección

Wereldkampioen Spanje speelt vrijdag in Minsk een kwalificatiewedstrijd voor het WK 2014 tegen gastland Belarus. De nervositeit neemt toe nu blijkt dat geen enkel kanaal bereid lijkt de uitzendrechten te betalen. Noch Mediaset, noch Antena 3 lijken zinnens 1,5 miljoen euro op te hoesten 'omdat dat bedrag eenvoudigweg de kosten niet dekt. De Portugese columnist Ferreira Fernandes maakt zich in de Diário de Notícias zorgen over het buurland:

‘Er was een tijd dat wij dachten dat we problemen hadden... Dan kwamen we tot de vaststelling dat de blackout groter was dan gedacht. We zaten in een tunnel op zoek naar wat licht en hoopten dat onze buurman met een lucifer soelaas zou brengen. Maar sinds gisteren begin ik me grote zorgen te maken over Spanje, nu duidelijk wordt dat de wedstrijd niet zal worden uitgezonden bij gebrek aan geld.

Geen geld hebben is op zich al erg genoeg en het bevestigt enkel de meelijkwekkende staat van zaken. Maar dat er geen rechtstreekse uitzending van de wedstrijd komt toont aan dat Spanje het nu ook al verder moet doen zonder zijn nationaal elftal, het enige wat het land nog samenhoudt....’

Bron : Express.be

Belarus, Media, "Anarchists Predict More Mass Protests"

Poor old Belarus: things just don?t seem to get any better in Europe?s last dictatorship.
Right now it?s being dwarfed by the media by controversies in Russia, but it remains
stifled in a regime under which thousands of dissidents have been incarcerated. While
Pussy Riot captured the world?s hearts, Belarus? political punks have gone mostly
unnoticed. Last March, almost 100 people were arrested for simply attending a punk gig and
no one heard about it. ---- We?ve told you about protests in Belarus several times now,
but all you really need to know is that it?s a dangerous activity. This week sees Belarus
enter their fourth election under President Alexander Lukashenko, faced with a ballot
paper sometimes literally providing them with one option alone. So we thought we?d catch
up with the punks who dare to stand against the regime.

Somewhere in the silence, a group of frustrated Belarusian youths are fighting back.
Taking inspiration from Greece?s "cells of fire", they launched high-stakes attacks
against reviled state symbols, focused primarily on Lukashenko, who we?ve run a couple of
stories on before. In power since 1994; Lukashenko was banned from attending the 2012
Olympics for his atrocious human rights record. Nice guy. More recently, he labelled
opposition in the Belarusian election ?cowards? for boycotting what is widely believed to
be a fixed vote. Belarus needs a break, and in a country where street demonstrations are
brutally suppressed, perhaps the surprise attacks of an anarchist group will help to
provide an ignored and oppressed people with the platform they need.

I spoke to an anarchist inside the regime, who explained that the motivation for the
attacks was born from a frustration at there being ?no legal way of getting people's
attention or making a public event for more than 10 minutes. This, alongside the
popularity of the Greek protests, led to new methods of struggle?. They have little choice
? after all, most legitimate forms of opposition are banned.

?It is almost impossible to register a party or a political movement in Belarus?, says my
contact, ?and there is a law that bans activity on behalf of an unregistered organisation.
Every action has to be approved. Illegal actions are punished by short arrests". If you
fail to comply with the government ?You can be expelled from university, or fired, if the
special forces ask for it. Sometimes they don't have to ask ? managers do it to prevent
unnecessary attention from the KGB. Simple leaflet distribution can be viewed as an
illegal mass media production.?

The current nascent anarchist movement has its roots in the punk and hardcore scene, with
squats and other counter-cultural projects increasingly emerging in Belarus over the last
decade. Actually, despite a history of being crushed by various dictators, Belarus has a
history of anarchism, with "Propaganda of the Deed" going as far back as 1905. If anarchy
is in its blood, there are a bunch of reasons for it to bubble up right now, stemming from
what our source describes as ?a growth of disappointment in 2008-2009, at the methods and
ideas of the opposition?. The sudden rise in their numbers, he explained, was particularly
evident ?during the annual Chernobyl march, organised by the opposition but supported by
anarchists who were against a new power plant being built in Belarus?. Apparently the
anarchist bloc ?outnumbered any other opposition movement? that day.

Arson attacks started in 2009, when underground anarchists launched a clandestine
campaign, attacking the army?s General Staff headquarters with a smoke grenade. They went
on to fire flares at Russian-owned casinos, set fire to a police station and firebomb the
Russian Embassy and a state-owned bank. After films of the attacks were posted online in a
bid to inspire others and the KGB inevitably set about arresting people, further
solidarity firebomb attacks on detention centres and the KGB headquarters were carried out.

Today, five anarchists accused of the attacks are currently in penal colonies, serving
sentences ranging from three to eight years. These prisoners, among thousands of others,
face nightmare conditions in post-Soviet prisons that enforce brutal structures of
hierarchy within the inmates. The bizarre caste system ranges from the Blatnye
(professional criminals), down to the Opuschennye (outcasts), who are regular targets for
sexual violence.

In 2010, Lukashenko's landslide election win provoked mass protests, and the regime
remains on edge about the prospect of repeated unrest in the fallout from the coming
result. One autocrat recently assured citizens that "We don't need revolutions and
shake-ups?. Actually, that?s probably the only thing they really do need, but the
government are going in as hard as possible to prevent any disquiet. Last week,
plainclothes security officers beat an Associated Press photographer and detained seven
other journalists, simply for covering a protest attended by just four opposition activists.

Of the 109 winning candidates announced yesterday morning, all were from the
pro-Lukashenko parties. In response, the anarchists are certain that it?s only a matter of
time before the mass protests return, noting an increasing number of young people,
disillusioned with the impotence of the opposition, joining their ranks. ?Parliamentary
elections are never popular; we have less than three average candidates for a position.
Most of the opposition boycotts them and big protests usually happen afterwards." However,
counting on support can be tricky, as he explains; ?The thing is that our country is
autocratic, not dictatory, which means if you don't fuss with the politics and don't care
about some human rights violations, then you?re OK. When the people have nothing to lose,
then there will be a majority in the street. But while the regime is supported by credit
from Russia, it will survive all smaller protests.?

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca

en) Call for solidarity with imprisoned comrades from Belarus - IAF-IFA*

It has been a long time since the last call for solidarity with the Belarusian anarchists
appeared. Today we have to admit that the new wave of solidarity is needed urgently to
help them out from the prison. That?s why we call you to participate in days of action in
solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners on 22nd-23rd of September (parliament
election day is 23rd). ---- The activists Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai Dziadok, Artsiom
Prakapenka, Pavel Syramolatau, Aliaksandr Frantskievich, Jauhen Vas?kovich that were
detained in autumn 2010 and winter 2011 and then sentenced to 3 to 8 years of prison in
May 2011 for a series of attacks on state and capital symbols are finishing their second
year in jail. During this time their comrades and relatives did their best to help them
feel comfortable in custody and set them free.

In October 2011 they were acknowledged political prisoners by right-watch organizations.
This fact gave them bigger chances to be freed as soon as possible, because at the moment
the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, faces pressure from the European Union
with the demands to set free all the political prisoners and decriminalize them. From
August 2011 he has already pardoned more than 30 of them, but none of our comrades was
granted freedom. Lukashenko said publicly, that he will pardon only those, who will write
the petition for pardon, thus admitting their guilt and asking him personally for mercy.
All the rest will remain in prison, he stated. In fact all imprisoned anarchists were many
times asked if they want to sign such petition. Five of them refused to do it.

Artsiom Prakapenka signed it under pressure but he is still in prison. Now there are 15
political prisoners left in Belarus, among them are 5 our comrades and 1 more, imprisoned
for the action of solidarity with them. All the prisoners are experiencing different kinds
of pressure from the administration of the prisons they are held in*, because Lukashenko
wants to be a winner in this situation and make it as if it is not the EU that forces him
to set free the political prisoners in fear of more political and economic sanctions, but
as if it is his good will to pardon them, again only if they ask for it. We strongly
oppose the fact that our comrades are now traded for benefits form the EU and condemn the
pressure that they experience*. We call everybody to protest against these tortures and
demand the immediate liberation of the political prisoners of Belarus, including anarchists.
We welcome solidarity actions of ANY kind starting from now on to accumulate amount of it
on days of solidarity, we also ask you to make solidarity actions at least once a month if
you find it possible even after the days of solidarity. We need constant pressure on the
regime and the EU politicians in this situation.
=====================================================
* The International of Anarchist Federations, August 2012.
http://i-f-a.org