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ANNOUNCEMENTS AND APPEALS

 

Essential and Revolutionary Solidarity through creating
new Anarchist Movement
Call for solidarity with the new anarchist structures in Kosovo

Dear comrades,

In the last couple of years the first ever Albanian anarchist circle in Kosovo has been formed. It is an anarchist library project. The participants ask for any kind of anarchist printed and other material in any language but preferably in English and the South-Slavonic languages such as Bulgarian. Since forming, they have sent letters to many anarchist groups and anarchist book and magazine publishers asking for things. Most, though, said they have their own financial problems and are unable to send free material to our Albanian comrades. The only printed material they have so far received is from the Federation of Anarchists of Western Greece (OADE) and from Melbourne, Australia, but the comrades are really keen to keep the project going. Our comrades there also face mass unemployment and therefore tremendous financial problems so that they cannot even afford stamps to send letters. The jobs they manage to find pay really shit wages, so the money they earn is spent on essential items like food. They also have no access to the internet. Some of them have health problems as well, due to exposure to bombs from NATO and other western forces in the Kosovo area in the recent war and to depleted uranium, which has already started to create mass illnesses (e.g. babies born without eyes etc). One of our comrades has been diagnosed with cancer recently, but he says he will keep up the struggle.

Because of these terrible problems, our comrades have an agreement with a Swiss humanitarian organisation which conducts regular convoys with food and other aid to the area. This organisation receives on their behalf letters and other articles from the international anarchist movement. We call for direct international anarchist solidarity with the Albanian comrades. You can send magazines, newspapers, leaflets, books, pamphlets, audio stuff (in any language, but preferably in English, Bulgarian, Serbian and related languages as mentioned above), or money, stationery, international reply coupons or anything else you think will be useful to them. We call especially for anarchist book, magazine and other publishers to contribute, as well as the anarchist movement of all Balkan and neighbouring countries (Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece) to help them. Our solidarity is essential and revolutionary since we will help a new anarchist movement to emerge.

You can send your contributions to their Swiss address:

RLP c/o P.F. 256, Ch 4142, Munchenstein - 2, Switzerland.

Alternatively, you can send your contribution to our addresses (or inform us if you have sent something to the Swiss address):

MELBOURNE ANARCHIST COMMUNIST GROUP (MACG)
James Sotros from the International Relations of OADE

Ekotopia Moldova
August 1-14 Callout for workshops on social and environmental issues in Eastern Europe & CIS

Ekotopia is an annual gathering of activists from all over Europe. This year in Moldova there will be special attention for social and environmental issues and activism in Eastern Europe & CIS. Are you interested to attend or give workshops on activist issues currently important in Eastern Europe and CIS, then come to Moldova and participate in Ekotopia!! Any issue of interest to you is welcome, be it EU-enlargement, Russia's CIS policies, Western multinationalism in Eastern Europe, anarchism in ex-CIS countries, Antifa activism, "Revolutions" in Eastern Europe: lessons from Ukraine and Georgia for Moldova?; alternative media under authoritarian regimes or (inequalities in) east-west activist interaction, etc etc etc). It's up to you!

Of course, workshops on any other interesting issue not specifically addressing Eastern Europe and CIS are just as welcome! At Ekotopia, the program is created by the participants, by you...

Ekotopia is a great place for having meetings with your activist networks and to meet activist from all over Europe. We hope cooperation between especially activists from Eastern Europe & CIS will be strengthened this summer!

Travel reimbursement will most probably be available for those who need it, if you apply before June 20th.

If you want to give a workshop then please fill in the online workshop form: http://informal.benn.org/go/ecotopia2005workshop

How to apply for Ekotopia Moldova? You can apply online at: http://informal.benn.org/go/Ecotopia2005
You can register until July 10th. Registering in advance is very helpful for the people organising the logistics!!

Hope to see you in Moldova!!

EYFA (European Youth for Action), AVI-Moldova, SalvaEco,
Environmental Movement of Moldova and Gutta-Club.

 

More about Ekotopia, Moldova, the local organizers, how to get there, travel reimbursement rules, visa, east-west issues, etc: www.eyfa.org. Questions & remarks? Ekotopia(A)eyfa.org

 

What is Ekotopia?

Ekotopia is an international gathering of activists from all over Europe involved or interested in environmental and social justice issues.

Ekotopia takes place every summer since 1989, each year in a different country. It is organized by EYFA (European Youth For Action) and by local grassroots environmental organizations as hosts. This year, the 17th ekotopia will take place in Moldova.

Ekotopia is a place for learning, exchanging experiences, spreading information about environmental, social, political and other issues, but also to have fun and recharge your activist batteries! Around 200 - 600 people attend Ekotopia each year, to share skills and discuss about a wide range of themes related to environmental problems: climate change, transport and mobility, GMOs, organic food, eco-building and sustainable infrastructure, global politics and global economic system, strategies for actions, experiences of campaigns, alternative media, migration, racism and xenophobia, cultural issues...
Ekotopia is also a model of self-sustainable community that puts into practice the principles of an environmentally friendly life-style: waste recycling, vegetarian kitchen, the use of alternative energy...another world exists! Where possible, Ekotopians participate in regional actions and clean ups, try to get local people interested in ecological problems and empower local organizations. Ekotopia is horizontally and self-organized; everyone is asked to take part in running the camp, solving problems and decision-making. Decisions are made by consensus during daily morning circles.

Cultural centre Duplo and Rainbow Keepers of Samara present
International Radical-Ecological Protest Camp 2005 in Otradniy, Russia

To take place in July and August of 2005 in the Samara Region of Russia, against a dangerous workshop for processing aluminium waste in the city of Otradniy, which has caused the suffering of hundreds of local people.

 

Background of the problem

Since 2002 a workshop for processing aluminium waste has functioned in the industrial region of the city of Otradniy, which is located 75 kilometres from Samara. Since then, local inhabitants have struggled against the enterprise, which pollutes the surrounding environment with a thick dark smoke. The workshop is located in one of the buildings of an abandoned, ruined factory, and is dangerously close to apartment blocks - only 500-600 meters away from the closest homes. The workshop is operated by the company OOO TD "Remetall-C", and it was opened without legal permission. At first, workshop was working daytime, but due to continuous complaints from workers of the neighbouring enterprises and local inhabitants, working hours were changed to evening and night.

These concerned people visited city government, they wrote letters to Putin, to the prosecutor responsible for the protection of the environment, to the administration of the city, to sanitary centre for the prevention of epidemia and to the prosecutor's office. As a result, officials organized various checks, and discovered several violations. At first, the company was ordered to change its practices; later director of Remetall-C was fined twice, with fines of approximately 170 and 130 dollars. Local press gave coverage of the problem. But these checks had always a routine character; they took place in daytime when the workshop was not active. Lately these checks have not resulted any sanctions against the company.

Recently the prosecutor wrote that it has not recognized any surpassing of limits of concentration of harmful emissions in the air, and thus there is no basis for a criminal case. Although to every inhabitant of the city it is obvious that Remetall-C is emitting harmful smoke, and although workers of the neighbouring companies have developed asthma and strange allergies, and although inhabitants of the closest buildings may not even open their windows, officials do not recognize any smoke.

All local inhabitants are against the company, but officials see no evil. The workshop is running on mazut, not gas, and a filter which the company bought to curb emissions is broken and is currently not in use - this is according to information from former employees of Remetall-C. As all the usual means of struggle have been exhausted, local inhabitants contacted radical ecologists in order to organize a protest campaign.

 

Who are we and how to contact us?

Radical ecologists are not only known for their protest camps, but also due to other ecological actions, and actions against fascists and war. Protest camps usually go on for several weeks or even months, until some positive solutions of the problems have been reached. During camp, ecologists organize various actions, performances, concerts and seminars in cities and villages surrounding the camp. If you want to participate in protest camp or help campaign by other means, you may write to ekolager@yandex.ru. Until a special site for the camp has been created, you may read additional information and updates from www.duplo.narod.ru. Address of the site of the city of Otradniy is http://www.otrada.narod.ru/, it has a map and other useful information in Russian language (you do not have to know Russian to make it there though!).

 

Beginning of the camp

You should bring cutlery with you, and take your own tent, sleeping bag and mattress would not be bad either. 1st - 3rd of July the camp will organize an info stall in the famous, huge festival of bard music of Grushin, close to Samara. The camp itself will launch on Monday 4th of July, a common transport from the festival to Otradniy will be organized on this day. Camp will last until final victory, or at least until the end of August.

Camp will be alcohol and drug free.

Terror 13
The anarchist info-shop in Skopje (Macedonia) asks for your contibution

Terror 13 is an anarchist info-shop in Skopje which opened in November, 2004. Apart from literature, in this place we have some D.I.Y. distributions, T-shirts, patches, pins… It's the first serious and better organized attempt at making this kind of place in Skopje. It's placed in a small garage that we rent, it's not so good but facing the fact that squatting here is almost impossible and the rent for the better places is very high, this is the best we can afford at this moment. Some 12-13 people are involved in the project and the info-shop is open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 16-19h. Having this kind of place in Skopje is really important both for the people involved and for the other people that are interested in anarchism and D.I.Y. Hard Core, Punk etc.

I would say that there is some interest among the people here in Skopje for this info-shop, but it's more for the music part of it, some kids are coming and are interested in some records, T-shirts or patches and not so much in reading literature or zines. That's why I think that in the future we should organize more activities for example, presentations of books, projections of movies, discussions etc. in order to spread the idea among other people who are not involved in the D.I.Y. music scene. At the beginning we had to be careful about "advertising" the place openly and making a big thing out of it because as I said, it's in a garage that we rent and selling things there is illegal. That's why we wanted to take some time and see how the whole situation is going to develop; we only spread the information personally to some people. As it was going fine, we started with bigger campaign, we always speak about the place at concerts, on some radio shows, we have made some flyers and we are looking forward with hope that this place is going to take an important place in the building of better and stronger anarchist movement here in Skopje. Some of the people from the info-shop are also involved in other activities such as organizing shows, releasing D.I.Y. records, making T-shirts and patches, translating and publishing anarchist literature, making zines, Food not bombs and some other actions.

We are interested in any kind of cooperation with similar groups or individuals so feel free to write for more information, sharing some experience or meeting some new friends. Any kind of contribution of literature, records, etc. is welcomed. Anarchist greetings from Skopje and don't forget - THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES!!!

www.Teror13.anarhija.org

 

Support URA!!!

Some years ago a police officer was envoyed from Bucharest to Craiova to investigate the case of URA. A bit later in a small office an ugly hysterical woman screamed: "you will not continue to publish, you will not write anymore".... Of course they never stopped. Unfortunately, where the police didn't succeed, poverty did: URA had to stop because of no money and technical capacities. Support URA!!!

URA is one of very few Romanian anarchist magazines. Their work is completely handicapped by lack of technical equipment: computer, scanner, printer … anything what one needs to publish on a regular and wide scale. If you can support (with money or with equipment - please contact AbolishingBB

 

No border camp in Croatia

On the 19th- 21st of August there will be a No border camp in Croatia, in a place near Umag, in Istria.

Email squatinfoshop(A)net.hr for more information