Stories of a badly integrated immigrant
A couple of days ago, former antifascist prisoner from Belarus Dmitriy Zvanko with a mob attacked anarchist squat Sirena in the center of Warsaw. The gang used bottles, peper spray, bricks and other things to throw out residents of the occupied building.
Bei den letzten Wahlen zur Duma (russisches Parlament) hat die kommunistische Partei (KPRF) 5% gewonnen und liegt nun bei 18,93%. Sie ist zwar noch weit von Putins “Einiges Russland” entfernt, aber für viele Enthusiasten kann dies eine gute Nachricht sein. Manch einer mag denken, dass die Ideen des Kommunismus wieder auf dem Vormarsch sind und Russland früher oder später vom Kapitalismus befreit werden wird. Die Geschichte ist aber viel komplizierter. Und kurz gesagt: Nein, Russland wird nicht dadurch kommunistischer, dass es Mitglieder der Kommunistischen Partei wählt.
In recent elections to Duma (Russian parliament) communist party (CPRF) gained 5% and is resting now at 18.93%. It is still far away from Putin’s United Russia, but for a lot of enthusiasts, this can sound like good news. Some might think that ideas of communism are gaining once again and sooner or later Russia will be liberated from capitalism. The story is way more complicated. And shortly – no, Russia is not becoming more communist from electing members of the Communist Party.
Although for most of the German anarchists the anti-germans are not something to talk about, the agenda that was presented by the pro-Israelian movement took roots in anarchist and leftist circles deep. It goes as far as attempts to pass agreements within the anarchist syndicate FAU to put an equal sign between antizionism and antisemitism. And although the push within FAU so far has failed, the anarchist movement is still getting more and more pressure from the pro-Israelian and clearly statist left to distance itself from work with the Palestinian Diaspora. With that happening inside the country, the complicated issue with the topic of Israel is also pouring outside of it. There were troubles within the international syndicalist groups because of member's support of the BDS movement which is seen by many german leftists as antisemitic.
You might have heard already about “refugee crisis” happening in Lithuania: in last months several thousands of people through forests and swamps crossed belarusian lithuanian border to request asylum in one of the European countries. In fact, the goal of most of the refugees from the Middle East is to move further into the EU as Lithuania with it's new conservative government is not a friendly place to be for an immigrant (even though a lot of Lithuanians after the country joined the European Union migrated to western countries for economic reasons).
When I was small my parents took me to the victory parade. It was an amazing event with lots of flowers, dressed up people and some weird smells of military tech. The day was indeed special, although it didn't have any ideological content. It was a holiday i could spend together with my friends and family and not go to school. It took me many years to sort out that in post soviet republics parades, at the victory day is just another ideological event to indoctrinate the people. To make them happy because we won.
Political and social movements need spaces. In liberal countries there are many open spaces where activists can hold debates, workshops, and concerts. Germany is no exception. In authoritarian countries the situation is more complicated. But sometimes it is only one step from an authoritarian regime from the former Soviet Union to German leftists.
The love story between german government and authoritarian Putin's regime in Russia is a long one. And while the biggest baby of this love is North Stream oil pipe, the struggle against COVID-19 is becoming another big project. Recently the news came that Germany is up to buy 30 m Sputnik jabs from Russia. Experience of neighbors from Croatia who got somehow shitty Sputnik is not really the thing germans would like to accept.
Today Ukrainian secret police tried to deport several Belarusian anarchists who left Belarus several years go in fear of political prosecution. Luckily information traveled fast and while the flat was still raided people started gathering in front of the houses of activists. After some struggle with local police, lawyers managed to get to the activists and stop the whole process. Deportation papers were not sanctioned by any court rather directly signed by SBU (Security Service of Ukraine). After the information storm SBU gave up on deporting the activists to Belarus, however it seems like they will have to leave the country in the next 24 hours.
Политическим и социальным движениям нужны пространства. В либеральных странах создано довольно много открытый площадок, на которых активисты могут проводить дебаты, воркшопы и концерты. Германия в этом вопросе не исключение. В авторитарных странах ситуация сложнее. Но иногда от авторитарного режима из бывшего совка всего один шаг до немецких леваков.